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THE 
■S  WISSAHICKON 


COMPILLDBYTADALY 


PVBLISHLD     BY 
THE- GAKDEN  CLVB  OF •  PHILADELPHIA 

19  22 


Pr 


THE  WISSAHICKON 


Devil's  Pool 
(Painted   in    IHHr,  by   Henry  A.    Frey) 


COPYRIGHTED 


Rocky  Path 


PHOTOGRAPH 
lY     KIRBELL     BAYES 


The  Wissahickon 


COMPILED   BY 

T.  A.  DALY 


DRAWINGS  BY 

HERBERT  PULLINGER 


published  by 

The  Garden  Club  of  Philadelphia 

1922 


Copyright,  1922,  by 
The  Garden  Club  of  Philadelphia 


printed  by 

George  H  Buchanan  Co. 

philadelphia 


TO  THE  MEMORY 

OF 

MRS.   C.   STUART  PATTERSON 

FIRST    PRESIDENT 
OF 

The  Garden  Club  of  Philadelphia 


Contents 

PAGE 

Historical   Sketch    9 

Roads  and  Walks 45 

Outlines  of  Geology 63 

Trees  and  Wild  Flowers 66 

Mosses    72 

Birds    7(i 

Railroad  and  Trolley  Routes 81 


FOREWORD 

The  vision  of  William  Penn  made  possible  the 
peaceful  settlement  of  Pennsylvania  and  permitted 
the  first  settlers  to  plant  their  gardens  where  they 
would.  In  all  other  parts  of  this  continent  the 
early  colonists  had  to  restrict  their  gardening  to  the 
confines  of  the  towns.  Within  Penn's  Province 
only  was  there  freedom  from  Indian  hostility. 

Here  in  peace  in  the  Valley  of  the  Wissahickon, 
in  1694,  John  Kelpius  and  his  fellow  Pietists  planned 
and  planted  the  first  botanical  garden  in  this  coun- 
try. The  love  of  these  Pietists  for  horticulture  has 
been  the  inspiration  for  gardening  which  has  come 
down  through  each  generation. 

There  has  also  come  to  this  generation  a  grave 
responsibility — the  preservation  of  the  natural 
beauties  of  our  land.  They  are  menaced  as  never 
before.  They  must  be  protected  now,  if  the  genera- 
tions of  the  future  are  to  have  the  refreshment  and 
delight  that  nature  alone  can  give. 

The  Garden  Club  of  Philadelphia  has  had  this 
book  compiled  to  encourage  the  love  and  enjoy- 
ment of  nature  and  to  strengthen  and  develop  the 
appreciation  of  this  wonderful  woodland  within  our 
own  city,  so  that  many  more  may  have  the  privi- 
lege of  knowing  the  Valley  of  the  Wissahickon  and 
that  its  charms  may  then  be  cherished  and  con- 
served. 

Today  in  the  midst  of  the  stir  and  strife  of  city 
life  is  needed  more  than  ever  the  calm  and  quiet 
of  this  Sanctuary  of  Peace. 

The  Garden  Club 
Philadelphia,  November,  1922. 


Acknowledgments 

The  compiler  is  indebted,  for  much  of  the  data 
in  his  historical  sketch,  to  the  following  publica- 
tions : 

"Fairmount  Park  and  the  Centennial  Exhibition,"  by 
Charles  S.  Keyser,  published  1875. 

"The  Wissahickon  in  History,  Song  and  Story,"  by 
Joseph  D.  Bicknell,  published  1908  by  the  City  History 
Society  of  Philadelphia. 

"Germantown  Gardens  and  Gardeners"  (paper  read  before 
the  Site  and  Relic  Society  of  Germantown),  by  Edwin  C. 
Jellett,  published  1914. 

"Pennsylvania  Archives." 

The  Garden  Club  and  the  compiler  desire  to 
express  their  grateful  appreciation 

To  EHzabeth  Shippen  Green  Elliott,  who  has  most  gen- 
erously given  the  decoration  for  the  cover; 

To  Kirbell  Bayes,  who  contributed  the  frontispiece, 
"Rocky  Path"; 

To  John  J.  MacFarlane,  who  gave  valuable  information; 

To  Professor  Frederick  Ehrenfeld,  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania,  Alexander  MacElwee,  President  of  the  Phil- 
adelphia Botanical  Club,  George  B.  Kaiser  and  William 
Henry  Trotter,  for  special  articles. 


The  Wissahickon 

There  earliest  stirred  the  feet  of  spring, 
There  summer  dreamed  on  drowsy  wing, 
And  autumn's  glories  longest  cling 
Along  the  Wissahickon. 

— T.  A.  Daly,  in  "McAroni  Ballads" 

The  wise  founder  of  Philadelphia  builded  better 
than  he  knew.  When  William  Penn,  in  1682,  laid 
out  his  "greene  country  towne"  on  the  Delaware 
River  he  may  have  had  a  vision  of  the  greatness 
the  centuries  would  bring  to  it.  But  he  could 
scarcely  have  imagined  his  city  grown  to  a  metrop- 
olis, crowded  with  homes  and  houses  of  commerce, 
yet  wearing  as  a  jewel  forever  fixed  in  its  crown 
a  replica  of  the  wildest  natural  grandeur  to  be  found 
in  all  his  "wooded  land  of  Penn."  It  is  no  mere 
fanciful  exaggeration  to  say  that  this  is  what  has 
happened. 

The  Wissahickon  region  has  been  called  by 
Baedeker,  who  is  surely  an  authority  upon  such 
matters,  "a  miniature  Alpine  gorge."  This  descrip- 
tive phrase  could  scarcely  be  improved  upon ;  and, 
it  must  be  admitted,  it  was  because  of  the  utter 
impossibility  of  improving,  for  practical  uses,  the 
region  itself  that  it  was  permitted  by  the  earliest 
white  settlers  to  remain  an  uncut  jewel  and  become 
to  the  descendants  of  those  pioneers  the  treasure 
it  is  today. 

The  gorge  of  the  Wissahickon,  except  for  the 
building  of  the  necessary  avenues  of  approach, 
retains    much    of    the    virginal    beauty    its    craggy 


10  THE     WISSAHICKON 

wooded  slopes  and  mossy,  rock-studded  waterways 
wore  when  the  Lenni-Lenape  Indians  were  its  only 
human  inhabitants.  It  is  a  narrow  ribbon  of  minia- 
ture mountain  grandeur,  of  irregular  width,  six  and 
a  half  miles  long,  and  having  an  area  of  1250  acres — 
or  about  one-third  the  total  area  of  Fairmount  Park, 
It  is  a  possession  unique  within  city  limits  in  the 
world. 

Wissahickon  Creek  rises  in  two  springs  near 
Montgomeryville,  in  Montgomery  County,  but  all 
its  surpassing  loveliness  lies  between  the  point 
where  it  crosses  the  Philadelphia  County  line  at 
Chestnut  Hill  and  its  junction  with  the  Schuylkill 
River  just  above  the  Falls.  It  is  this  part,  also, 
which  is  richest  in  historical  and  romantic  interest. 
Here  were  the  favorite  hunting  and  fishing  grounds 
of  the  Indians  before,  and  for  nearly  a  hundred 
years  after,  the  settlement  by  Penn  and  Pastorius 
of  Philadelphia  and  Germantown.  Hither  came 
Kelpius  and  his  strange  associates,  mystics  and 
hermits.  Here  in  the  wilderness,  at  intervals,  infant 
industries  were  established,  including  the  first  paper 
mill  in  America.  Along  the  lower  reaches  of  the 
stream  and  across  the  enclosing  ridges  was  fought 
an  important  part  of  the  Battle  of  Germantown, 
and  here  were  centered  the  many  activities  of  the 
patriot  "Green  Boys"  against  the  British  and  Hes- 
sians. Here  in  more  peaceful  times  poets  and  prose 
writers  came  to  sing  and  weave  their  legendary 
tales ;  and  here,  later,  came  lovers  old  and  young 
to  fashion,  or  renew,  their  own  romances. 

The  chief  object  of  this  chronicle  is  to  attract 
the  attention  of  lovers  of  nature,  and,  by  offering  the 


THE     WISSAHICKON  11 

fullest  possible  information  of  the  present  visible 
charms  of  the  Wissahickon  region,  to  lead  them  to 
discover  for  themselves  and  to  enjoy  and  appreciate 
the  natural  loveliness  long  rock-sealed  and  unknown 
to  most  of  the  neighboring  town-dwellers.  To  this 
end  maps,  pictures,  trolley  and  motor  routes,  sug- 
gestions to  hikers  and  horsemen,  and  chapters 
descriptive  of  the  birds,  flowers,  rock-formation  and 
other  physical  features  of  the  region  are  elsewhere 
presented.  That  the  present  charm  may  be  appre- 
ciated to  the  full  it  is  necessary  to  go  back  over  the 
past;  and  it  will  be  best  to  approach  the  Wissa- 
hickon much  as  did  those  first  white  adventurers 
who  figured  in  the  making  of  its  early  history. 


Early    History 


It  is  likely,  although  there  is  no  authentic  record 
of  the  fact,  that  The  Wissahickon  was  first  dis- 
covered by  some  inquisitive  white  man,  possibly  a 
Swede  from  the  earlier  Delaware  settlement,  pad- 
dling along  the  eastern  shore  of  the  Schuylkill 
River.  In  that  solitude  the  sound  of  the  creek's 
waters  tumbling  over  the  natural  dam  of  rocks 
which  then  marked  its  mouth  was  certain  to 
attract  attention.  But  the  rocky  formation  which 
prevented  navigation  of  the  stream  also  frowned 
down  from  the  precipitous  banks  and  discouraged 
exploration  afoot.  This  barrier  to  the  region  be- 
yond continued  to  exist  during  nearly  a  century 
and  a  half,  for  it  was  not  until  1826  that  the  mass 
of  rock  was  removed  and  the  way  was  opened,  along 


12  THE     WISSAHICKON 

the  east  side  of  the  creek,  for  easy  access,  by  foot 
and  wheel,  to  the  heart  of  the  inner  valley. 

The  first  white  explorers  to  break  into  that  virgin 
wilderness  were,  doubtless,  the  men  who  made  the 
survey  in  1681-82,  arranging  the  conveyance  of  the 
lands  along  the  banks  of  the  creek  to  twelve 
patentees,  who  held  them  for  speculation  and  later 
sold  portions  of  their  grants  to  the  settlers  who 
followed.  These  surveyors,  very  probably  went  in 
by  the  landward  route,  taking  the  trail  from  Shacka- 
maxon  on  the  Delaware  which  the  Indians  by  long 
usage  had  beaten  through  the  laurel  bushes  and 
dense  underwoods,  on  their  way  to  and  from  the 
Schuylkill  and  the  camps  beyond. 

It  was  over  this  rough  trail  that  Francis  Daniel 
Pastorius,  the  founder  of  Germantown,  in  the 
autumn  of  1683,  led  his  associates  of  "the  German 
Company"  from  the  Palatinate,  to  the  tract  which, 
after  many  weary  weeks  of  delay  and  discussion, 
William  Penn  had  finally  assigned  to  him.  Lands 
upon  a  navigable  stream  had  been  promised  "the 
German  Company,"  but  such  desirable  tracts  were 
not  available,  and  though  the  nearest  stream,  the 
Wissahickon,  was  seemingly  in  no  respect  service- 
able, Pastorius  wisely  took  what  he  could  get.  His 
settlement,  spread  out  in  straggling  fashion  for  a 
mile  or  so  along  one  main  street,  prospered  and 
grew ;  and  from  among  its  inhabitants  came  the  first 
commercial  invaders  of  the  upper  Wissahickon. 

The  lower  waters  of  the  stream,  below  the  falls, 
were,  apparently,  earlier  exploited  by  venturesome 
spirits  from  Penn's  Colony.  Through  the  activities 
and  the  land-holding  prominence  of  one  of  these 


THE     WISSAHICKON  13 

worthies — John  Whitpain,  devout  Friend  and  am- 
bitious merchant — the  locality  was  in  danger  for  a 
time  of  losing  its  lovely  Indian  name.  In  Holme's 
survey,  and  in  old  deeds  and  grants  drawn  in  1690, 
the  stream  is  called  "Whitpain's  Creek."  Fortu- 
nately, however,  popular  favor  preserved  the  Indian 
name,  or  rather  an  anglicized  blending  of  the  two 
words  variously  used  by  the  Lenapes  to  indicate 
its  outstanding  qualities — "Wisaucksickan"  (yel- 
low-colored stream),  and  "Wisamickan"  (catfish 
creek). 

The  first  industrial  plant  to  harness  the  power  of 
the  tiny  torrent  was  known  at  different  times  as 
"Robeson's  Mill"  and  "Wissahickon  Mill."  The 
date  of  its  erection  is  uncertain,  but  that  it  took 
priority  over  all  others  seems  probable  from  the 
ancient  deed  recording  that  in  1686  John  Townsend, 
millwright,  and  Robert  Turner,  purchased  fifty- 
three  and  a  half  acres,  which  they  sold  July  11,  1691, 
to  Andrew  Robeson  together  with  "the  house,  saw 
and  grist  mill  erected  thereon."  The  old  deed's 
failure  to  mention  the  exact  time,  between  1686 
and  1691,  when  the  house,  saw  and  grist  mill  took 
shape  under  the  builder's  hands  still  leaves  a  hook 
for  an  argument  among  antiquarians  favoring  the 
Rittenhouse  Mill,  erected  a  mile  or  more  up  stream, 
in  1690 — some  say  1688. 

But  there  will  be  more  to  say  of  these,  and  the 
numerous  other  mills,  later.  Any  attempt  to  pre- 
sent, in  proper  chronological  order,  the  steps  in  the 
development  of  the  Wissahickon  region  must  take 
note  of  the  fact  that  it  was  the  lower  section  that 
first    enjoyed    direct    communication    with    Penn's 


14  THE     IVISSAHICKON 

little  city  down  the  river.  And  the  river  was  the 
most  favored  medium  of  travel.  "As  late  as  the  year 
1796,"  says  Edwin  C.  Jellett,  "and  for  a  long  time 
after,  Broad  Street,  Philadelphia,  extended  only 
from  present  South  Street  to  present  Vine  Street, 
while  above  and  below  these  undeveloped  thorough- 
fares were  districts  of  farms  unbroken  save  by 
fences,  unimportant  lanes  and  a  few  cross  roads. 
At  this  time  northward  from  the  Penn  City  extended 
four  important  arteries.  Leading  to  Frankford,  and 
to  points  beyond,  was  Frankford  or  New  York 
Road,  West  of  this,  Germantown  Road  and  Old 
York  Road  for  a  distance  ran  together,  parting  at 
Rising  Sun  Village,  the  northern  branch  being  the 
main  avenue  from  Philadelphia  to  New  York,  the 
other,  or  western  branch,  passing  to  and  through 
Germantown  and  continuing  onward  to  the  moun- 
tains of  the  Upper  Schuylkill.  Following  Schuyl- 
kill River  was  Ridge  Road,  this  uniting  with  Ger- 
mantown or  Reading  Pike  at  Barren  Hill,  and  at 
Perkiomen  Creek."  But,  as  Mr.  Jellett  mentions 
later  in  the  same  paper,  since  the  Germantown  court 
records  show  that  on  March  9,  1702,  Justus  Falck- 
ner  and  Francis  Daniel  Pastorius  were  appointed 
to  confer  with  Edward  Farmar,  of  White  Marsh, 
concerning  the  cost  of  a  road  to  Philadelphia,  the 
earlier  road  to  Germantown  was  evidently  a  mere 
trail  scarcely  worthy  to  be  called  a  thoroughfare ; 
and  the  same  was  very  likely  true  of  all  roads  lead- 
ing out  of  Philadelphia  at  that  time. 

In  1706  Ridge  Road  was  widened  and  improved, 
but  for  many  years  thereafter  the  river  continued  to 
be  the  favored  link  of  communication  between  the 


THE     WISSAHICKON 


15 


city  and  the  settlements  along  the  Schuylkill.  To 
Robeson's  grist  mill,  a  sawmill  and  a  nail  factory 
were  added,  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  growing  farm- 
ing community  west  of  the  Wissahickon.  Though 
Ridge  Road  can  scarcely  be  said  to  have  hummed 


Railroad  Bridge,  Ridge  Avenue  Entrance 


with  industry,  it  was  the  busiest  avenue  of  trade 
thereabouts.  Save  for  the  intrusion  of  William 
Rittenhouse  who  erected  a  grist  mill  and  later  a 
much  more  famous  paper  mill  about  a  mile  up 
stream,  the  solitude  of  the  valley  behind  the  rock 
barrier  at  the  creek's  mouth  was  unbroken. 

To  this  sylvan  stronghold  of  silence  and  of  com- 
plete separation  from  the  outer  world  came,  in  1694, 


16  THE     WISSAHICKON 

the  Wissahickon's  most  interesting  habitant,  a  being 
all  spirit,  the  mystic  and  Pietist — John  Kelpius. 

Born  of  a  wealthy  and  distinguished  family  of 
Siebenburgen  in  Germany,  John  Kelpius  studied 
at  the  University  of  Helmstadt  under  Dr.  Fabricius, 
became  proficient  in  many  languages,  and  early 
steeped  himself  in  occult  science  and  mysticism. 
His  intense  religious  fervor  and  gentle  temper  drew 
to  him  several  kindred  spirits,  all  men  in  easy  cir- 
cumstances like  himself,  who  followed  him  to  the 
new  world  where  they  hoped  to  devote  themselves, 
undisturbed,  to  constant  meditation  and  prayer. 
Kelpius  was  but  23  years  of  age  when,  with  his 
associates,  he  came  to  the  village  of  Germantown. 
For  a  time  they  dwelt  among  the  people  of  Pastorius 
and  converted  a  few  of  those  earlier  settlers  to  their 
strange,  visionary  belief.  They  soon  felt  that  the 
worldly  bustle  of  the  thriving  community  was  a 
deterrent  to  full  spiritual  development,  and  taking 
with  them  their  neophytes,  of  whom  the  most 
famous  was  Dr.  Christopher  Witt,  they  betook 
themselves  deep  into  the  lower  Wissahickon  woods 
and  built  their  hermitage  at  a  point  about  midway 
between  the  Rittenhouse  Mill  and  the  Ridge  Road. 

Here  they  formed  themselves  into  the  "Society 
of  the  Woman  of  the  Wilderness"  and  devoted 
themselves  seriously  to  the  important  business  of 
preparing  for  the  millennium,  which  they  believed 
near  at  hand,  and  for  the  coming  of  "the  woman 
clothed  with  the  sun,  with  the  moon  under  her  feet, 
and  the  twelve  stars  on  her  forehead ;  she  who  had 
fled  into  the  wilderness."     By  this  Woman,  so  far 


THE     WISSAHICKON  17 

as  we  may  discern  her  through  the  mists  of  mysti- 
cism with  which  they  veiled  her,  was  meant  the 
pure  spirit  of  early  Christian  faith,  driven  from  the 
world  by  the  wickedness  and  the  dissensions  of 
mankind. 

It  is  the  habit  of  some  commentators  to  sneer  at 
"The  Hermits  of  the  Ridge,"  as  they  came  to  be 
called,  as  a  pack  of  lazy  lunatics.  It  may  be  ad- 
mitted that  there  were  some  queer  kinks  in  their 
otherwise  fine  minds,  but  that  they  were  lazy  is  not 
at  all  true.  One  of  the  first  works  to  which  they 
set  the  labor  of  their  hands  was  the  building  of  a  log 
cabin  forty  feet  square,  true  to  the  points  of  the 
compass,  containing  a  large  assembly  room  with  an 
iron  cross  at  one  end.  Four  large  windows  looked 
out  to  the  west,  but  the  east  side  was  bare ;  and 
on  this  eastward  wall  was  set  the  mystic  sign  of  the 
Rosicrucians.  For  many  of  them,  in  common  with 
other  learned  men  of  the  time,  were  reputed  to  be 
members  of  that  secret  order  said  to  have  been 
founded  in  the  14th  Century  but  of  whose  actual 
existence  there  has  never  been  any  proof.  So,  we 
are  told,  the  mark  of  that  mystic  brotherhood,  the 
cross  within  a  circle,  was  fixed  where  it  would  catch 
the  earliest  rays  of  the  morning  sun.  "On  the  roof," 
says  Joseph  D.  Bicknell,  in  his  paper  written  for 
the  City  History  Society  of  Philadelphia  in  1906, 
"was  a  lantern  or  observatory,  undoubtedly  the  first 
erected  in  America,  in  which  two  of  the  brethren 
were  always  on  the  watch  with  scientific  instru- 
ments for  the  coming  of  'the  Bridegroom'  and  inci- 
dentally engaged  in  studying  the  heavens." 


18  THE     WISSAHICKON 

There  can  be  no  question  of  the  kindly  and  benef- 
icent intentions  of  the  brethren.  They  gave  not 
only  spiritual  but  material  aid  to  all  who  sought 
their  services.  They  cast  horoscopes  and  practised 
and  taught  magic,  divining  and  healing;  and  it  was 
mainly  for  the  furtherance  of  the  science  of  elemen- 
tary medicine  that  Kelpius  laid  out,  somewhere 
along  the  lower  Wissahickon  the  first  botanical 
garden  in  America.  The  second  was  the  garden  of 
that  beloved  disciple  of  Kelpius,  Dr.  Christopher 
Witt,  who  long  survived  his  young  master.  But 
this  Witt  garden  became  properly  a  Germantown, 
not  a  Wissahickon,  institution  ;  for,  wrote  Pastorius  : 
"Anno  1711,  Christopher  Witt  removed  his  flower 
beds  close  to  my  fence."  Nearby  Dr.  Witt  laid  out 
his  second  garden,  and  it  was  this  "lovesome  spot," 
conducted  by  the  good  doctor  when  "well  strickon 
in  years,"  which  was  visited  and  unfavorably  criti- 
cized in  1743  by  John  Bartram,  whose  own  famous 
garden  established  in  1741 — the  oldest  botanical 
garden  still  extant  in  America — lies,  in  regrettable 
neglect,  along  the  west  bank  of  the  lower  Schuyl- 
kill opposite  Point  Breeze. 

It  was  the  first  garden  of  Kelpius  to  which  George 
Webb  is  supposed  to  have  referred  when,  in  his 
"Bachelor  Hall,"  published  in  1729,  he  wrote: 

In  our  vast  woods,  whatever  simples  grow. 
Whose  virtues  none  but  the  Indians  know 
Within   the  confines  of  this  garden  brought, 
To  rise  with  added  lustre  shall  be  taught, 
Then  culled  with  judgment,  each  shall  yield  its  juice 
Saliferous  balsam  to  the  sick  man's  use. 


THE     WISSAHICKON 


19 


Kelpius,  doubtless,  learned  much  of  native  plant 
values  from  the  Indians,  and  they  in  turn  were  his 
beneficiaries  in  many  ways.    Except  for  this  tradition 

Hm^ 


Indian  Rock 


of  mutual  affection,  it  is  a  curious  and  regrettable 
fact  that  in  all  the  historical  and  legendary  records 
of  the  Wissahickon  there  is  little  mention  of  the 
native  red  men.    It  may  be  that  they  were  so  mild 


20  THE     WISSAHICKON 

as  to  be  commonplace.  At  any  rate,  the  name  of 
no  outstanding  chief  has  come  down  to  us.  Nearly 
a  half  century  after  the  time  of  Kelpius,  it  is  true, 
one  Tedyuscung  did  stalk — or  stagger — into  the 
story,  but  he  seems  scarcely  worthy  of  the  promi- 
nence accorded  him.  None  of  his  contemporaries 
had  a  good  word  for  Tedyuscung.  "He  was,"  says 
Charles  Keyser,  "no  true  savage — was  litigious,  was 
frequently  drunk,  and  showed  other  evidences  of  a 
tendency  to  lapse  into  civilization." 

For  a  long  time  the  name  of  Tedyuscung  was 
associated  with  Indian  Rock,  the  council  stone  of 
the  Lenapes,  one  of  the  grandest  of  the  high  spots 
along  the  Wissahickon.  A  rough  wooden  image, 
designed  to  be  an  effigy  of  him,  was  set  up  there 
some  seventy  years  ago.  Later  it  was  replaced  by 
another  and  better  one,  which  survived  the  ravages 
of  the  weather  and  relic-hunters  until  the  begin- 
ning of  the  present  century,  when  it  was  removed 
to  the  rooms  of  the  Site  and  Relic  Society  of  Ger- 
mantown.  It  is  not  unlikely  that  time  will  remove 
even  the  memory  of  Tedyuscung  from  Indian  Rock ; 
for  that  craggy  eminence  is  now  worthily  crowned 
by  a  memorial  in  enduring  stone,  the  heroic,  crouch- 
ing figure  of  a  true  Lenape,  peering,  hand  to  brow, 
far  off  to  the  western  wilderness  whither  the  noblest 
of  the  Lenapes  took  their  way  not  very  long  after 
the  death  of  Kelpius. 

Kelpius,  sitting  in  a  chair  in  his  garden  and  sur- 
rounded by  his  sorrowing  disciples,  died  in  1708, 
at  the  age  of  35.  He  had  worn  himself  out  by  his 
soul's  "long  during  purification"  and  the  "pensive 


THE     nnSSAHICKON  21 

longing  in  the  wilderness"  (phrases  incorporated 
by  him  in  the  title  of  one  of  his  hymns  dated  "Anno 
1698,  January  30").  He  was  buried  somewhere  in 
that  sylvan  solitude,  and  with  him  passed  "the  con- 
secration and  the  dream."  For  though  some  of  his 
followers  stayed  on  until  their  own  weary  bones 
were  laid  away  among  the  rocks,  others  went  over 
to  the  Mennonite  community  at  Ephrata,  in  Lan- 
caster County,  and  still  others  returned  to  the 
normal  workaday  life  of  Germantown. 

The  Society  of  the  Woman  of  the  Wilderness  died 
with  Kelpius,  for  though  a  generation  later  there 
arose  in  the  neighborhood  another  short-lived 
colony  of  hermits,  who  occupied  the  Monastery 
which  still  stands  in  the  upper  reaches  of  the  Wissa- 
hickon,  these  had  no  kinship  with  the  early  Pietists. 
They  were  Seventh  Day  Baptists,  led  by  Joseph 
Gorgas,  who  had  their  fasts  and  vigils  and  practised 
a  modified  mysticism  in  imitation  of  their  more 
famous  predecessors.  For  a  time  proselytes  came  to 
them  and  were  inducted  into  membership  through 
the  saving  waters  of  a  neighboring  pool  still  known 
as  the  Baptistery,  and  by  some  as  the  "Baptistra- 
tion."  But  these  solitudinarians  also  passed  on, 
after  a  few  years,  to  the  cloisters  at  Ephrata. 

Meantime  the  clatter  of  mill  wheels  had  been 
swelling  into  a  lively,  if  still  somewhat  scattered 
chorus  through  the  Wissahickon  valley.  William 
Rittenhouse's  grist  mill,  mentioned  before,  had  be- 
come the  Rittenhouse  Paper  Mill  in  1690.  William 
Bradford,  famous  American  pioneer  in  the  art  of 
printing,  was   for  several  years   a  partner  in    the 


22  THE     WISSAHICKON 

enterprise.    In  John  Holme's  "True  Relation  of  the 

Flourishing    State    of    Pennsylvania"     (1696),    we 

read: 

Here  dwelt  a  printer  and  I  find 

That  he  can  both  print  books  and  bind. 

He  wants  not  paper,  ink  nor  skill, 

He's  owner  of  a  paper  mill. 

The  paper  mill  is  here  hard  by 

And  makes  good  paper  frequently. 

Richard  Frame's  quaint  excursion  in  doggerel — 
"A  Short  Description  of  Pennsylvania,"  printed  by 
William  Bradford  at  Philadelphia  in  1696 — touches 
casually  upon  Germantown 

Where  lives  High  German  people  and  Low  Dutch 
Whose  trade  in  weaving  linen  cloth  is  much. 

and,  his  limping  lines  go  on  to  report  that 

From  linen  rags  good  paper  doth  derive, 
The  first  trade  keeps  the  second  trade  alive, 
A  paper  mill  near  German  Town  doth  stand. 

This  mill  was  located  in  a  glen  above  the  Ritten- 
house  dwelling  (still  standing  and  to  be  preserved, 
it  is  hoped,  as  a  venerated,  patriotic  shrine  forever) 
on  the  bank  of  the  tumbling  streamlet,  long  known 
as  Paper  Mill  Run,  which  enters  the  Wissahickon 
at  that  point.  The  first  mill  was  destroyed  by  a 
freshet  in  1700,  and  William  Penn  is  said  to  have 
assisted  materially  in  the  erection  of  a  larger  plant. 
Here  at  this  first  American  paper  mill  most  of  the 
paper  used  in  the  middle  colonies  was  made.  In 
1705  William  Rittenhouse  became  sole  owner,  and 
the  property  and  business  descended  from  father  to 
son  until  the  land  was  bought  by  the  Fairmount 
Park  Commission. 


THE     WISSAHICKON  23 

Some  distance  further  up  Paper  Mill  Run  Mat- 
thew Holgate  established  his  fulling  mill  in  1698, 
and  the  industrial  invasion  of  the  upper  Wissa- 
hickon  was  well  under  way.  At  the  extreme  north- 
ern end  near  City  Line  William  Dewees  built,  in 
1710,  the  second  paper  mill  in  the  Colonies,  and  here, 
we  are  told,  paper  for  the  cartridges  (?)  for  the 
Revolutionary  Army  was  made.  Nearby  was  Daniel 
Howell's  grist  mill,  also  of  1710.  It  is  unnecessary, 
and,  indeed,  it  would  be  impossible — since  many 
records  are  lost  and  others  are  unreliable — to  name 
all  the  industrial  plants  that  were  depending  on  the 
water-power  of  the  Wissahickon  by  the  middle  of 
the  18th  Century.  Most  of  them  were  grist  mills, 
and  of  these  the  old  Livezey,  or  "Great  Mill"  built 
by  Thomas  Shoemaker  in  1745  was  the  most  im- 
portant and  for  a  long  time  the  largest  in  the  Col- 
ony. Mill  dams  were  scattered  all  up  and  down 
the  stream,  and  over  the  dam  breasts  rough  roads 
were  laid,  affording  the  only  communication, 
through  the  wilderness,  between  Germantown  and 
Roxborough. 

But  in  spite  of  all  this  hum  of  trade  fed  by  its 
crystal  artery  the  upper  Wissahickon  has  main- 
tained its  wild  beauty  practically  inviolate  to  this 
day.  All  these  old  mills — in  1793  they  numbered 
twenty-four  and  before  the  middle  of  the  19th  Cen- 
tury more  than  sixty — have  entirely  disappeared, 
save  for  a  few  dismantled  foundations.  Of  the 
residences  of  the  early  factors  only  the  Rittenhouse 
manse  (1707)  stands  intact,  and  there  is  a  special 
reason  why  this  should  be.  For  in  the  midst  of  the 
busy  commercialism  marking  the  middle  of  the  18th 


24 


THE     WISSAHICKON 


Century  a  dreamer  was  born  there  who  was  destined 
to  be  the  most  glorious  product  of  that  region. 

David  Rittenhouse,  first  American  astronomer 
and  zealous  patriot  of  the  Revolution,  was  born 
April  8,  1732.  "He  followed  first  the  plough,"  says 
Charles   S.   Keyser,   in   his   Centennial    History   of 


^l. 


A 


-«=§?: 


Home  of  David  Rittenhouse 

Fairmount  Park,  "but  was  found  so  often  with  the 
plough  lying  in  the  furrow,  and  the  fence  full  of 
figures,  that  he  lost  that  service,  and  took  up  the 
trade  of  a  clockmaker.  His  first  great  work,  among 
many  others — marvelous  in  their  time,  constructed 
wholly  at  night,  his  idle  hours  as  he  called  them — 
was  the  famous  orrery  now  in  Princeton  University. 
His  next  was  a  series  of  calculations  for  the  transit 


THE     WISSAHICKON  25 

of  Venus  over  the  sun's  disk.  This  wonderful  me- 
chanical contrivance,  the  universe  in  motion  on  a 
frame,  and  these  accurate  and  profound  calculations, 
and  their  verification  by  his  own  observation,  gave 
him  a  wide-spread  reputation  in  this  country  and 
Europe.  The  life  of  David  Rittenhouse  was  mainly 
connected  with  the  world  of  science,  and  his  fame 
there  rests ;  but,  yet,  his  mind  was  also  an  invaluable 
machine  for  the  business  uses  of  his  generation." 
Dreamer  among  the  stars,  yet  with  his  feet  solidly 
set  upon  the  land  he  loved,  he  was  a  leader  among 
his  patriotic  neighbors,  served  as  State  Treasurer 
from  1777  to  1789,  afterwards  as  Director  of  the 
Mint,  and  was  for  many  years  President  of  the 
American  Philosophical  Society. 

Period  of  the  Revolution 

Exact  truth  and  doubtful  tradition  are  so  hope- 
lessly mixed  in  the  story  of  the  first  hundred  years 
of  the  Wissahickon  region,  it  is  almost  impossible 
now  to  determine  fact  from  fiction  in  the  records 
that  have  come  down  to  us  touching  the  part  played 
by  it  in  the  war  for  American  independence. 

The  deeply  wooded,  rocky  valley,  still  sealed  at 
its  riverward  end  by  granite  cliffs,  and  cut  into, 
from  the  east  or  west,  only  at  widely  separated 
intervals  by  rough  mill  roads,  seems  to  have  been 
a  No-Man's-Land.  Somewhere  over  this  difficult 
ground  we  know  that  an  important  part  of 
the  Battle  of  Germantown  was  waged  on  October 
4,  1777,  by  the  Pennsylvania  Militia,  under  General 
John  Armstrong,  and  the  Hessian  Jaegers  of  Knyp- 


26  THE     WISSAHICKON 

hausen.  But  where  the  bulk  of  the  fighting  was 
done,  and  by  what  road,  or  roads,  the  patriot  troops 
moved  to  the  attack,  it  is  impossible  to  say. 

The  tablet  erected  in  1907,  by  the  Pennsylvania 
Society  of  Sons  of  the  Revolution,  at  the  entrance 
to  the  Upper  Wissahickon,  below  the  old  Ritten- 
house  dwelling,  says:  "On  the  morning  of  the 
Battle  of  Germantown,  October  4,  1777,  the  Penn- 
sylvania Militia,  under  General  John  Armstrong, 
occupying  the  high  ground  on  the  west  side  of  the 
creek  opposite  this  point,  engaged  in  a  skirmish 
the  left  wing  of  the  British  forces,  in  command  of 
Lieut.-General  Knyphausen,  who  occupied  the  high 
ground  on  the  east  side,  along  Schoolhouse  Lane." 
This  would  seem  to  agree  with  the  tradition  that 
Armstrong  advanced  over  the  Holgate's  Mill  Road, 
then  the  most  direct  route  from  Roxborough  to 
Germantown — the  course  he  would  most  likely  have 
taken  if  his  first  objective  had  been  an  immediate 
junction  with  Washington's  main  army  in  German- 
town.  But  it  was  not ;  as  will  appear  from  Arm- 
strong's report  of  the  engagement.  At  variance, 
also,  with  that  report  is  the  impression  given  by 
the  wording  of  the  tablet  that  the  combatants  stuck 
to  their  respective  "high  grounds"  and  fired  at  each 
other  across  the  ravine.  Even  if  there  had  been 
no  dense  fog — and  there  was — this  would  have  been 
a  waste  of  powder  and  shot.  The  muskets  of  neither 
Continentals  nor  Jaegers  would  have  carried  that 
far;  and  Armstrong's  men  had  at  most  but  two 
small  field  pieces. 

General  Armstrong  declares  his  "destiny"  to  have 
been  "Vanduring's."     The  mill  of  John  Vandaren 


THE     WISSAHICKON  27 

and  Enoch  Rittenhouse,  built  very  early  in  the  18th 
Century  was  situated  not  far  from  the  present  Her- 
mit's Lane,  which,  after  much  litigation,  was  opened 
in  1794,  as  a  private  way,  giving  Michael  Ritten- 
house (then  sole  owner  of  Vandaren's)  an  outlet 
from  his  grist  mill  to  Ridge  Road.  Also,  says  Key- 
ser,  in  his  Centennial  History  of  Fairmount  Park : 
"The  British  line  of  redoubts  extended  back  of  the 
Wissahickon  Creek,  along  the  east  side,  for  a  dis- 
tance of  two  miles.  During  the  battle  the  Amer- 
icans occupied  the  hills,  and  until  recently  (about 
1860)  the  remains  of  their  temporary  redoubts  were 
visible,  extending  along  the  west  side  in  a  semi- 
circle, a  considerable  distance.  In  building  the 
Railroad  Bridge  which  crosses  here,  these  old  land- 
marks were  destroyed." 

The  bridge  referred  to  was  the  wooden  prede- 
cessor of  the  splendid  stone  structure  above  and 
parallel  with  Ridge  Road,  which — all  honor  and 
praise  to  the  good  taste  of  its  builders ! — serves  not 
only  as  a  viaduct  for  the  tracks  of  the  Reading 
Railway  but  as  a  noble,  arched  gateway  to  the 
Lower  Wissahickon.  It  was  in  this  neighborhood, 
very  probably,  that  the  action  of  the  morning  of 
October  4,  1777,  began,  and  spread  later  to  the 
point  favored  by  the  tablet  and  beyond.  For  "the 
horrenduous  hills  of  the  Wissihickon,"  in  which 
the  General  in  command  was  obliged  to  abandon 
one  field-piece,  may  well  have  been  those  lovely, 
and  anything  but  "horrenduous,"  fastnesses  of  the 
upper  reaches. 

It  is  rather  curious  that  although  brief  extracts 
from   General  Armstrong's  report  have  frequently 


28  THE     WISSAHICKON 

been  quoted,  the  complete  document  has  seldom,  if 
ever,  been  published  outside  of  the  Pennsylvania 
Archives.  It  is  a  quaint  military  paper,  and  it  may 
be  that  a  feeling  of  squeamish  patriotism  has 
prompted  most  commentators  to  hide  from  the 
plain  people  its  faults  of  composition.  But  though 
many  in  Colonial  times  spelled  as  poorly  as  General 
John  Armstrong,  few  could  fight  as  well  as  he ;  and 
there  is  nothing  to  be  ashamed  of  in  this  letter  to 
the  President  of  the  Supreme  Council  of  Pennsyl- 
vania : 

GENERAL   ARMSTRONG   TO    PRES'T   WHARTON, 

„.  Camp  near  the  Trapp,  5th  Octob'r,  1777 

Sir: 

By  a  forced  march  of  fourteen  miles  or  upward, 
on  Friday  night,  General  Washington  attacked 
about  sunrise  yesterday  morning,  the  British  & 
Foreign  Troops  encamped  at  Jerman  Town,  Van- 
durings  &  elsewhere  toward  the  York  Road.  We 
marched  by  four  different  routes — those  on  the  left 
did  not  arrive  so  soon  as  the  Columnes  on  the  Cen- 
ter &  Right.  The  Continental  Troops  drove  the 
principal  part  of  the  Enemy  at  Jerman  Town  full 
two  miles;  yet  what  I  shall  say  a  victory  almost 
in  full  embrace  was  frustrated,  but  by  what  means 
cannot  yet  be  easily  ascertained.  I  think  by  a  num- 
ber of  casualties,  a  thick  fogg  whereby  not  only 
our  ammunition  was  expended  without  an  object, 
but  it's  thought  that  our  own  Troops  had  been 
taken  in  an  instance  or  two  for  reinforcements  of 
the  enemy,  whereby  a  panic  &  retreat  ensued,  which 
the  General  could  not  prevent!  Thus  may  it  be 
said,  thro'  some  strange  fatality  (tho'  not  the  less 
faulty  on  our  part,)  that  we  fled  from  victory. 
Another  reason  was  the  time  spent  about  Mr. 
Chew's  house,  where  a  number  of  the  Enemy  took 
sanctuary,  &  from  which  a  number  of  our  people 


THE     WISSAHICKON  29 

were  killed  &  wounded.  We  can  yet  tell  nothing 
perfectly  of  our  loss,  nor  of  that  of  the  enemy. 
General  Nashes  thigh  &  the  head  of  Major  Wither- 
spoon  were,  it's  said,  both  taken  away  by  one  and 
the  same  Cannon  Ball.  I  shou'd  be  glad  to  send 
you  a  Copy  of  Our  Order  of  Battle,  or  attack,  but 
have  it  not  here.  My  destiny  was  against  the  vari- 
ous Corps  of  Jermans  encamped  at  Mr.  Vandur- 
ings  or  near  the  Falls.  Their  Light  Horse  dis- 
covered our  approach  a  little  before  sunrise;  we 
cannonaded  from  the  heights  on  each  side  the 
Wissihickon,  whilst  the  Riflemen  on  opposite  sides 
acted  on  the  lower  ground.  About  nine  I  was 
called  to  joine  the  General,  but  left  a  party  with  the 
Colls.  Eyers  &  Dunlap,  &  one  field  piece  &  after- 
wards reinforced  them,  which  reinforcements,  by 
the  way,  however  did  not  joine  them,  untill  after 
a  brave  resistance  they  were  obliged  to  retreat,  but 
carried  off  the  field  piece,  the  other  I  was  obliged 
to  leave  in  the  Horrenduous  hills  of  the  Wissi- 
hickon, but  ordered  her  on  a  safe  rout  to  join 
Eyeres  if  he  shou'd  retreat,  as  was  done  accordingly. 
We  proceeded  to  the  left,  and  above  Jermantown 
some  three  miles,  directed  by  a  slow  crossfire  of 
Canon,  untill  we  fell  into  the  Front  of  a  superior 
body  of  the  Enemy,  with  whom  we  engaged  about 
three  quarters  of  an  hour,  but  their  grape  shot  & 
ball  soon  intimidated  &  obliged  us  to  retreat  or 
rather  file  oflF.  Untill  then  I  thought  we  had  a  Vic- 
tory, but  to  my  great  disappointment,  soon  found 
our  army  were  gone  an  hour  or  two  before,  &  we 
the  last  on  the  ground.  We  brought  off  every- 
thing but  a  wounded  man  or  two — lost  not  quite 
20  men  on  the  whole,  &  hope  we  killed  at  least  that 
number,  beside  diverting  the  Hessian  Strength  from 
the  General  in  the  morning.  I  have  neither  time 
nor  light  to  add  but  that  I  am  respectfully  yours, 

John   Armstrong 
Directed, 

The  Honorable  Thos.  Wharton,  Lancaster. 


30  THE     WISSAHICKON 

It  seems  reasonably  clear  from  all  this  that  it  was 
not  by  Holgate's  Mill  Road  that  the  Pennsylvania 
Militia  moved  into  the  engagement,  but  by  some 
road  further  down,  probably  the  Ridge  Road  itself. 

"Manatawney"  was  the  name  most  commonly 
given  in  Revolutionary  times  to  the  present  Ridge 
Road.  Before  that  it  had  been  the  "King's  High- 
way." During  Howe's  occupation  of  Philadelphia, 
it  was  unquestionably  the  liveliest  highway  out  of 
Philadelphia,  mainly  because  of  the  colonists'  de- 
termination that  it  should  no  longer  be  the  King's. 
British  outposts  constantly  patrolled  this  avenue  of 
approach,  and  possible  attack,  from  Valley  Forge 
and  other  camps  along  the  Schuylkill.  Near  Rock- 
fish  Inn,  a  short  distance  below  the  Falls  of  Schuyl- 
kill, Knyphausen's  Hessians  had  their  camp  and 
from  that  base  waged  reprisals  against  the  inter- 
mittent guerrilla  warfare  of  the  "Green  Boys,"  bold 
young  yokels  of  the  neighborhood.  An  important 
figure  in  this  patriot  band  was  Jacob  Levering,  "the 
spy  of  the  Wissahickon,"  A  surprise  attack  of  the 
Hessians,  directed  against  Wood's  barn,  just  beyond 
the  mouth  of  the  Wissahickon,  in  the  hope  of  catch- 
ing the  elusive  "Green  Boys,"  tradition  has  it,  led 
to  the  massacre  of  some  soldiers  of  the  Virginia 
Line,  who,  on  their  way  to  Valley  Forge  had  taken 
shelter  there  for  the  night  in  spite  of  the  neighbors' 
warnings.  (A  monument  in  Leverington  Cemetery, 
Roxborough,  commemorates  the  victims  of  this 
massacre.) 

In  the  spring  of  1778,  Manatawney,  or  Ridge 
Road,  just  above  the  mouth  of  the  Wissahickon, 
was  the  scene  of  a  masterly  manoeuvre  by  General 


THE     WISSAHICKON 


31 


Lafayette,  whom  Washington  had  despatched  from 
Valley  Forge,  with  a  force  of  2000  men,  to  make  a 
sortie  against  Howe  in  Philadelphia.  Howe,  ad- 
vised of  this,  determined  to  attack  without  delay. 
One  force  of  5000  men  sent  arovmd  by  Chestnut 
Hill,  succeeded  in  establishing  itself  a  mile  in  the 


Old  Livezey  Mansion 

rear  of  Lafayette's  position,  while  a  smaller  detach- 
ment, advanced  against  him  up  the  Ridge  Road. 
These  movements  were  discovered  during  the  night 
by  Captain  Allen  McLane  (or  McClane)  a  vigilant 
Continental  officer,  who  made  his  way  to  Lafa- 
yette's camp  and  apprised  him  of  his  danger.  The 
general  in  command  feigned  an  attack  on  the  larger 
force,  and  then  by  a  rapid  flank  movement  took  his 
army  safely  across  the  river  at  Matson's  Ford. 


32  THE     WISSAHICKON 

The  Wissahickon  is  rich  in  Revolutionary  leg- 
ends. We  are  told  how  Mom  Rinker,  a  crafty  old 
woman,  was  wont  to  pass  valuable  messages  to 
Washington's  men  by  concealing  them  in  a  ball  of 
yarn  which  she  dropped  from  Mom  Rinker's  Rock 
where  she  sat  apparently  engaged  in  innocent  knit- 
ting; and  how,  in  a  skirmish,  a  dozen  Hessians  were 
killed  "back  of  the  garden  wall  in  front  of  the  Live- 
zey  house"  along  the  Upper  Wissahickon.  But  all 
these  tales  may  be  liberally  discounted.  It  is  enough 
to  know  that  in  this  wild  gorge  valiant  patriots,  in 
Continental  buflf  and  blue,  and  in  rough  homespun 
of  the  farmhouse — and  some  even  in  skirts — gave 
their  best  service  to  the  great  cause. 

But  our  chief  joy  now  is  in  the  realization  that 
there  were  then  no  terrible  engines  of  war  to  make 
this  "No-Man's-Land"  a  bleak  waste ;  and  that  its 
pristine  natural  beauty  is  still  ours  to  enjoy. 

The  Romantic  Discovery 

With  the  evacuation  of  Philadelphia  by  the  Brit- 
ish in  June,  1778,  and  for  nearly  half  a  century 
thereafter,  the  Wissahickon  seems  to  have  reverted 
to  its  earlier  state  of  solitude  and  separation  from 
the  world  described  by  Whittier  in  his  narrative 
poem  of  "The  Pennsylvania  Pilgrim" : 

Peace  brooded  over  all.     No  trumpet  stung 
The  air  to  madness,  and  no  steeple  flung 
Alarums  down  from  bells  at  midnight  rung. 

The  land  slept  well.     The  Indian  from  his  face 
Washed  all  his  war-paint  off,  and  in  the  place 
Of  battle-marches  sped  the  peaceful  chase. 


THE     WISSAHICKON  33 

The  Indian,  it  is  true,  was  gone,  never  to  return. 
So,  too,  were  the  timid  deer,  perhaps.  But  there 
were  other  incentives  to  "the  peaceful  chase,"  for,  on 
the  testimony  of  the  antiquarian  Watson,  bears  and 
wolves  were  shot  there  as  late  as  1795.  In  the  pools 
upstream  trout  were  still  to  be  had,  and  every 
spring  the  broader  waters  at  the  mouth  of  the  creek 
below  the  falls  were  alive  with  a  migratory  species 
of  catfish  which  came  there  (according  to  a  credible 
witness)  "in  numbers  so  numerous  as  to  blacken 
the  narrow  passages."  The  society  of  Fort  St. 
Davids,  an  ancient  and  honorable  company  of  ama- 
teur anglers  and  bonvivants,  akin  to  the  famous 
State  in  Schuylkill,  further  down  the  river,  had  es- 
tablished itself  nearby  long  before  the  Revolution. 
John  Dickinson,  frail  shadow  of  a  man,  but  fiery 
patriot,  and  member  of  the  first  Continental  Con- 
gress, was  of  this  company.  When  grim  war  stalked 
up  and  down  Ridge  Road  he  and  his  associates 
were  otherwise  engaged  than  in  the  gentle  art  of 
angling.  In  reprisal  for  this,  Knyphausen's  Hes- 
sians burned  down  the  "fort."  But  after  the  Revo- 
lution it  was  rebuilt  and  for  many  years  continued 
to  be  a  lively  center  of  conviviality. 

Godfrey  Shronk,  a  noted  Wissahickon  fisherman, 
assured  Watson,  the  chronicler,  that  the  small  gar- 
rison at  Fort  St.  Davids  often  cooked  and  dis- 
patched forty  dozen  catfish  at  a  meal.  Shronk  him- 
self is  credited  with  having  caught  3000  catfish 
(with  a  net,  of  course),  in  a  single  night.  Shad, 
also,  were  taken  there  as  late  as  1821,  but  the  Fair- 
mount  Dam,  erected  in  that  year,  thereafter  blocked 
their  passage ;  though  the  catfish  continued  still  to 


34 


THE     WISSAHICKON 


tickle  the  palates  of  generations  of  gourmands  along 
the  Wissahickon. 

The  early  20's  of  the  last  century  marked  the  be- 
ginning of  the  Romantic  Discovery  of  the  Wissa- 
hickon. Up  until  1822  no  effort  had  been  made  to 
open  the  mouth  of  the  creek,  but  in  that  year  the 


i-t^/lU,^-  ~^~ 


Wissahickon  Hall 

deep  ledge  of  rock  over  vi^hich  the  waters  tumbled 
in  a  graceful  fall  of  ten  or  twelve  feet  was  removed. 
Four  years  later  the  stone  battlements  guarding  the 
banks  were  attacked,  and  the  present  road  along  the 
east  side  was  cut  through  to  the  old  Rittenhouse 
mill.  At  the  same  time  the  road-builders  began 
working  through  from  Chestnut  Hill,  and  that  year, 
1826,  the  Wissahickon  began  to  unfold  its  charms 
to  the  public. 


THE     WISSAHICKON  35 

Even  yet,  however,  there  was  no  evidence  that 
the  public  was  interested,  beyond  a  casual  sharing 
of  the  utilitarian  thought  in  the  minds  of  the  city's 
engineers.  For  it  was  to  afford  the  mills  along  the 
creek  a  direct  outlet  to  Ridge  Road  that  this  im- 
provement was  undertaken.  In  the  back  of  their 
minds,  too,  the  authorities  may  have  had  another 
practical  thought.  Franklin  had  recommended  in 
his  will  (1780)  that  a  portion  of  the  legacy  he  left 
to  accumulate  for  the  benefit  of  the  City  of  Phila- 
delphia be  expended  "at  the  end  of  one  hundred 
years,  if  not  done  before,  in  bringing,  by  pipes,  the 
water  of  the  Wissahickon  Creek  into  the  town  so 
as  to  supply  the  inhabitants." 

Credit  for  the  first  discovery  of  the  Wissahickon's 
sentimental  riches  belongs  to  Fanny  Kemble.  This 
famous  actress,  and  brilliant  and  beautiful  woman, 
while  playing  an  engagement  in  Philadelphia  in 
1832,  made  several  horseback  trips  to  the  mouth  of 
the  creek,  and,  though  she  seems  not  to  have  fol- 
lowed its  course  very  far,  fell  instantly  and  deeply 
in  love  with  it.  Under  date  of  December  30,  1832, 
she  wrote  in  her  Journal  a  long  and  flowery  account 
of  her  first  view  of  the  Wissahickon's  loveliness. 
"The  thick,  bright,  rich-tufted  cedars,"  it  concluded, 
"basking  in  the  warm  amber  glow,  the  picturesque 
mill,  the  smooth  open  field,  along  whose  side  the 
river  waters,  after  receiving  this  child  of  the  moun- 
tains into  their  bosom,  wound  deep,  and  bright,  and 
still,  the  whole  radiant  with  the  softest  light  I  ever 
beheld,  formed  a  most  enchanting  and  serene  sub- 
ject of  contemplation." 


36  THE     WISSAHICKON 

Later  she  burst  into  song  about  it,  and  left  to 
posterity  at  least  two  poems,  both,  unfortunately, 
too  long  for  citation  here. 

One  of  Edgar  Allen  Poe's  "Landscapes  in  Prose," 
on  its  first  publication  was  illustrated  with  an  etch- 
ing of  an  elk,  by  J.  G.  Chapman.  This  circumstance 
seems  to  have  been  partly  responsible  for  the  fact 
that  wherever  it  has  been  reprinted  it  is  entitled 
"The  Elk."  But  the  sketch,  as  it  originally  ap- 
peared in  "The  Opal,"  a  gift  book  for  1844,  carried 
the  title  "Morning  on  the  Wissahiccon."  In  the 
course  of  this  article,  Poe  wrote : 

It  was  not  until  Fanny  Kemble,  in  her  droll  book 
about  the  United  States,  pointed  out  to  Philadel- 
phians  the  rare  loveliness  of  a  stream  which  lay  at 
their  own  doors,  that  this  loveliness  was  more  than 
suspected  by  a  few  adventurous  pedestrians  of  the 
vicinity.  But,  the  "Journal"  having  opened  all  eyes, 
the  Wissahiccon,  to  a  certain  extent,  rolled  at  once 
into  notoriety.  I  say  "to  a  certain  extent,"  for,  in 
fact,  the  true  beauty  of  the  stream  lies  far  above  the 
route  of  the  Philadelphian  picturesque-hunters, 
who  rarely  proceed  farther  than  a  mile  or  two  above 
the  mouth  of  the  rivulet — for  the  very  excellent 
reason  that  here  the  carriage-road  stops,  I  would 
advise  the  adventurer  who  would  behold  its  finest 
points  to  take  the  Ridge  Road,  running  westwardly 
from  the  city,  and,  having  reached  the  second  lane 
beyond  the  sixth  milestone,  to  follow  this  lane  to 
its  termination.  He  will  thus  strike  the  Wissa- 
hiccon, at  one  of  its  best  reaches,  and,  in  a  skifT, 
or  by  clambering  along  its  banks,  he  can  go  up  or 
down  the  stream,  as  best  suits  his  fancy,  and  in 
either  direction  will  meet  his  reward. 

From  this  it  is  clear  that  the  improvement  begun 
in  1826  still  left  much  to  be  desired  eighteen  years 


THE     WISSAHICKON  37 

later.  It  was  not  until  1856  that  the  present  road 
from  Ridge  Avenue  to  the  County  Line  at  Chestnut 
Hill  was  completed  by  the  Wissahickon  Turnpike 
Company, 

At  about  the  time  Poe  was  writing  his  sketch  for 
"The  Opal,"  a  lesser — an  infinitely  lesser — genius 
was  haunting  the  Wissahickon  and  spinning  ro- 
mances much  wilder  than  the  hills  and  glens  by 
which  they  were  inspired.  George  Lippard,  born  in 
Chester  County,  in  1822,  but  brought  to  German- 
town  by  his  parents  while  he  was  still  a  small  boy, 
was  an  unwholesome,  will-o'-the-wisplike  spirit. 
As  boy  and  man  he  delighted  to  wander  "where  the 
breeze  mourns  its  anthem  through  tall  pines ;  where 
the  silver  waters  send  up  their  voices  of  joy ;  where 
calmness  and  quiet  and  intense  solitude  awe  the 
soul  and  fill  the  heart  with  bright  thoughts  and 
golden  dreams  woven  in  the  luxury  of  the  summer 
hour." 

The  Wissahickon  runs  through  several  of  his  sen- 
sational novels  which  had  much  popularity  in  their 
day,  tales  as  feeble,  feverish  and  short-lived  as  he 
himself  was.  On  one  of  the  highest  rocks  of  the 
Wissahickon — probably  that  known  as  "Lover's 
Leap" — on  a  moonlit  night  in  May,  1847,  he  was 
married  by  Indian  rites  to  the  frail  young  woman 
who  preceded  him  to  the  grave  a  few  years  later. 

Besides  the  prose  sketch  mentioned  before,  Poe 
does  not  seem  to  have  been  moved  to  write  any- 
thing in  celebration  of  the  Wissahickon's  charm. 
This  is  regrettable.  The  silence  of  Tom  Moore  is 
more  easily  pardoned,  for  though  the  Irish  melodist 
spent  several  weeks  in  a  cottage  on  the  west  bank 


38  THE     WISSAHICKON 

of  the  Schuylkill  only  a  mile  or  so  downstream,  the 
Wissahickon  was  not  then  (1804)  so  easy  to  reach. 
But  many  years  later,  one  singer  approaching  the 
rank  of  those  others — the  gentle  Quaker  poet  of 
Amesbury — did  touch  lightly  and  with  grace  upon 
this  region.  In  his  long  eulogy  of  Francis  Daniel 
Pastorius  ("The  Pennsylvania  Pilgrim")  Whittier 
brightens  his  pages  with  many  splashes  of  local 
color,  calls  back  to  memory 

*     *     *     painful  Kelpius  from  his  hermit  den 
By  Wissahickon,  maddest  of  good  men, 

and  tells  again  how 

Deep  in  the  woods,  where  the  small  river  slid 
Snakelike  in  shade,  the  Helmstadt  Mystic  hid, 
Weird  as  a  wizard  over  arts  forbid. 

When  Whittier  came  to  the  Wissahickon,  thus 
to  let  his  fancy  have  play  among  "old,  forgotten, 
far-off  things,"  the  lovely  valley  was  on  the  eve  of 
its  restoration — as  nearly  as  could  be — to  its  orig- 
inal state  of  wild  beauty.  In  that  year,  1871,  the 
tunnel  was  cut  through  the  huge  mass  of  rock  on 
the  Schuylkill's  east  bank  above  Girard  Avenue, 
and  the  River  Drive  was  carried  through  to  Mifflin 
Lane,  where  it  detoured  over  the  old  dirt  road  to 
Strawberry  Mansion  and  by  the  Ridge  Road  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Wissahickon.  Over  this  new  and  more 
direct  highway,  two  years  later,  the  Fairmount 
Park  Commission  may  be  said  to  have  marched  in 
to  take  possession  of  the  whole  Wissahickon  region 
which  it  had  been  authorized  to  acquire  and  pre- 
serve forever. 


THE     IVISSAHICKON  39 

The  Act  of  Assembly,  approved  1868,  provided 
that, 

It  shall  be  the  dutj--  of  the  said  Park  Commis- 
sioners to  appropriate  the  shores  of  the  Wissa- 
hickon  Creek  on  both  sides  of  such  width  as  may 
embrace  the  road  now  passing  along  the  same;  and 
may  also  protect  the  purity  of  the  water  of  said 
creek,  and  by  passing  along  the  crest  of  the  heights 
which  are  now  on  either  side  of  said  creek,  may  pre- 
serve the  beauty  of  its  scenery." 

It  required  four  or  five  years  to  complete  the  sur- 
vey and  acquire  all  the  property  needed,  but  by 
1873  the  Commissioners  were  ready  to  begin  the 
work  of  restoration.  There  was  much  to  be  done. 
In  the  forty  years  following  Fanny  Kcmble's  trump- 
eting of  its  neglected  charms,  the  region  had  been 
extensively  exploited  by  Commercial  Industry  and 
Social  Pleasure — both  somewhat  unbridled.  The 
numerous  mills,  already  referred  to,  had  so  multi- 
plied, and  spread  not  only  along  the  main  stream, 
but  also  on  its  several  small  tributaries,  as  to  make 
this  one  of  the  most  important  industrial  districts 
within  the  city  limits.  All  these  establishments, 
with  the  single  exception  of  the  Megargee  Paper 
Mill  near  Chestnut  Hill  (which  was  allowed  to  stand 
until  1884)  were  immediately  torn  down ;  and  so 
Commerce  passed  out. 

The  centers  of  Social  Pleasure  were  not  torn,  but 
merely  toned,  down.  Taverns  and  roadhouses, 
which  had  been  all  that  custom  in  the  middle  of  the 
Nineteenth  Century  expected  such  places  to  be, 
either  became  totally  temperate  under  the  new  park 
regulations  or  disappeared  altogether  from  the 
neighborhood.     At  the  same  time  new   houses   of 


40 


THE     WISSAHICKON 


entertainment,  aiming  to  profit  by  the  increasing 
popularity  of  the  Wissahickon,  arose  at  several 
points  outside  the  park  limits  but  within  easy  reach 


Midwinter 

of  the  main  drive,  and  there  for  those  who  cared 
to  seek  it,  the  dance  went  on,  as  merry  as  before. 

At  most,  if  not  all,  of  these  road  houses,  before 
1873,  catfish  and  waffle  and  chicken  dinners  were 
served  at  all  seasons,  and  in  winter  when  the  roads 


THE     WISSAHICKON  41 

were  white,  and  not  too  deeply  covered,  trim  sleighs 
drawn  by  fast  steppers  flashed  up  and  down  the 
drive  from  Ridge  Road  to  Chestnut  Hill ;  and  moon- 
light nights  especially  were  all  a  jangle  of  silver 
bells.  On  fine  afternoons  from  early  spring  until 
late  fall  the  sedate  carriage-folk  of  Germantown 
and  Chestnut  Hill  in  their  broughams  and  landaus, 
the  grand  ladies  shielding  their  complexions  from 
the  sun  with  tiny  parasols  and  sitting  scarcely  less 
erect  than  their  liveried  coachmen,  took  the  air  and 
enjoyed  the  scenery  with  calm  dignity.  The  fash- 
ionable set  of  the  city  proper,  below  Market  Street, 
seldom  ventured  beyond  Sweet  Briar  or  Belmont, 
which  was  jaunt  enough  for  an  elegant  equipage  in 
the  70's. 

For  these  the  roadhouse  would  have  hung  out  its 
sign  in  vain.  But  it  did  appeal  to  the  horsey  set 
and  to  the  plain  people  who  came  in  afoot  and  by 
horse-car  and  railway  line.  The  first  house  of  enter- 
tainment within  the  southern  gateway  was  Wissa- 
hickon  Hall.  It  was  built  by  Harry  Lippen,  in 
1849,  at  the  foot  of  Gypsy  Lane ;  and  there  the  old 
house  still  stands — but  as  a  barracks  for  the  Park 
Guard.  A  short  distance  further  along,  and  on  the 
west  bank  of  the  creek  was  the  Log  Cabin,  which 
first  hung  out  its  bush  in  the  early  40's.  The  catfish 
and  waffles  and  other  refreshments  offered  at  Wis- 
sahickon  Hall  were  probably  better  than  the  fare 
the  Log  Cabin  provided,  and  to  catch  custom 
Thomas  Llewellyn,  the  proprietor,  introduced  as  an 
added  attraction  a  small  menagerie  of  owls,  foxes, 
monkeys    and    other    small    animals.      Two    large, 


42  THE     VVISSAHICKON 

black  bears  were  chained  to  an  old  passenger  coach 
near  the  inn  door. 

The  Maple  Springs  Hotel,  diagonally  across  the 
creek  from  the  Log  Cabin,  built  and  conducted  by- 
Joseph  ("Whittler")  Smith,  also  had  two  bears, 
and  these  put  the  Log  Cabin's  bruins  completely  in 
the  shade.  They  were  trained,  for  the  amusement 
of  travelers  along  the  road,  to  bite  the  string  that 
held  down  the  cork  of  a  highly-charged  mineral 
water  bottle  and  guzzle  the  contents.  "Whittler" 
Smith  had  the  knack  of  carving  roots  into  gro- 
tesque shapes,  and  he  maintained  besides  a  collec- 
tion of  curious  natural  specimens  of  strange  forms 
in  roots  and  branches. 

But  all  this  was  50  years  ago.  "A  plague  upon 
both  your  houses !"  said  the  Park  Commissioners, 
and  the  Log  Cabin  and  the  Maple  Springs  Hotel 
disappeared  from  the  Wissahickon.  Of  all  the  inns 
and  roadhouses,  once  numerous  enough  along  the 
creek,  only  one  still  stands,  offering  temperate  re- 
freshment to  travelers — Valley  Green  Inn.  Tra- 
dition, which  is  not  at  all  dependable,  would  make 
the  inn  at  least  150  years  old.  For  it  is  said  Wash- 
ington and  Lafayette  dined  there  one  day  on  their 
way  from  the  camp  at  Barren  Hill  to  Germantown. 
Another  story  has  it  that  a  large  quantity  of  wine 
sent  from  France  to  Franklin  was  buried  there  for 
safekeeping  while  the  British  occupied  Philadel- 
phia. But  other  "authorities"  locate  this  interest- 
ing cache  at  the  old  Livezey  Homestead  near  Al- 
len's Lane. 

All  this  is  a  mixture  of  the  merest  gossip  with  a 
thin  color  of  truth.     It  seems  to  be  true  that  just 


THE     WISSAHICKON 


43 


before  the  Battle  of  Germantown  several  casks  of 
wine  were  sunk  in  the  stream  thereabouts.  But 
there  was  no  "large  quantity  of  wine  sent  from 
France  to  Franklin."  This  story  is  a  simple  distor- 
tion of  the  fact  that  one  of  the  Livezeys  did  send  a 
small  sample  of  native  Wissahickon  wine  to  Frank- 
lin when   he  was  at   Paris.     Franklin   praised   its 


Valley  Green 


quality  but  frankly  declared  it  inferior  to  the  French 
vintages.  Washington  and  Lafayette  may  indeed 
have  dined  more  than  once  at  a  house  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Valley  Green,  but  the  present  inn  build- 
ing was  not  erected  until  1850.  Abraham  Rinker 
was  the  first  landlord  of  Valley  Green  Tavern,  and 
he  was  succeeded  in  1856  by  Simon  Markley,  who 
gave  way  later  to  Abraham  Stone.    Then  came  the 


44  THE     WISSAHICKON 

Park  Commission,  bringing  a  new  order  of  things 
to  Valley  Green,  but  maintaining  it  still  as  a  delight- 
ful rendezvous  for  all  visitors  to  the  upper  Wissa- 
hickon. 

By  the  time  of  the  Centennial  Exposition  of  1876 
the  Fairmount  Park  Commission  had  made  prodi- 
gious improvements  in  the  region  entrusted  to  it 
only  three  years  before.  In  every  way  possible  the 
original  wild  beauty  of  the  place  was  restored  and 
the  Wissahickon  was  ready  for  the  admiration  of 
visitors  from  all  over  the  world.  These  came,  and 
their  amazement  and  delight  and  subsequent  praise 
first  stirred  Philadelphia  to  a  full  realization  of  the 
value  of  this  unique  jewel  in  its  crown,  and  gave 
to  the  region  the  international  fame  which  had 
been  too  long  denied. 

Under  the  beneficent  administration  of  the  Park 
Commission  the  Wissahickon  has  grown  in  charm 
year  by  year.  The  history  of  that  half  century  of 
restoration  and  preservation  could  not  be  told  in 
words  one-half  so  well  as  it  may  be  read  by  every- 
one who  is  privileged  now  to  see  and  enjoy  the  re- 
sults of  the  Commission's  labors.  Within  the  limits 
of  this  chronicle  any  adequate  description  of  the 
loveliness  of  the  Wissahickon — particularly  the 
upper  reaches — would  be  impossible.  But  brief 
hints  as  to  special  points  of  interest  may  be  given, 
and  the  reader  will  find  in  the  pages  that  follow 
guide-posts  that  should  help  him  to  many  a  delight- 
ful adventure. 


THE     WISSAHICKON  45 


Roads  and  Walks 

In  his  delightful  "Travels  in  Philadelphia"  (1920), 
Christopher  Morley,  poet  and  essayist,  presents 
several  sketches  in  musical  prose,  appreciative  of 
the  beauties  of  the  Wissahickon  region.  By  way 
of  preface  to  one  of  these  he  says : 

Perhaps  Philadelpliians  do  not  quite  realize  how 
famous  the  Wissahickon  Valley  is.  When  my 
mother  was  a  small  girl  in  England  there  stood  on 
her  father's  reading  table  a  silk  lampshade  on  which 
were  painted  little  scenes  of  the  world's  loveliest 
beauty  glimpses.  There  were  vistas  of  Swiss 
mountains,  Italian  lakes,  French  cathedrals,  Dutch 
canals,  English  gardens.  And  then,  among  these 
fabled  glories,  there  was  a  tiny  sketch  of  a  scene 
that  chiefly  touched  my  mother's  girlish  fancy. 
She  did  not  ever  expect  to  see  it,  but  often,  as  the 
evening  lamplight  shone  through  it,  her  eye  would 
examine  its  dainty  charm.  It  was  called  "The 
Wissahickon  Drive,  Philadelphia,  U.  S.  A."  Many 
years  afterward  she  saw  it  for  the  first  time  and  her 
heart  jumped  as  hearts  do  when  they  are  given  a 
chance. 

The  tiny  scene  on  the  lampshade,  doubtless  one 
of  those  which  were  broadcast  over  the  world  from 
the  Centennial  Exposition,  very  probably  showed 
what  was  then,  as  now,  the  noble  main  entrance, 
with  its  broad  sweep  from  Ridge  Avenue  into  the 
heart  of  the  valley  of  enchantment.  The  general 
view  is  much  the  same  now  as  it  was  then,  but  the 
volume  of  the  vehicular  traffic  through  that  gate- 
way has  greatly  increased  and  its  character  has 
wonderfully  changed.     The  brougham  and  the  Ian- 


46 


THE     WISSAHICKON 


dau  have  gone.  In  the  steady  procession  of  motor- 
cars along  the  lower  drive  any  sort  of  horse-drawn 
vehicle  is  as  rare  as  a  white  blackbird.  Yet  to  see 
and  enjoy  the  full  beauty  of  the  Wissahickon  one 
must  either  go  afoot  or  ride  upon,  or  behind,  a 
horse. 

The  automobile,  of  course,  though  it  has  the 
faults  of  its  virtues,  will  afiford  the  casual  visitor 
the  speediest  and  most  comfortable  medium  of 
transportation  from  the  center  of  the  city.     And  if 


Bridge  at  Valley  Green 


1! 


the  motorist  is  willing  to  brave  the  honking  of  im- 
patient horns  behind  him  and  will  loaf  along  the 
far  edge  of  the  right  of  way,  there  will  be  beauty 
enough  to  reward  him,  after  he  turns  in  from  the 


THE     WISSAHICKON 


A7 


/^ 


Andorra.  - 


Thorp'sLane  — 


ThosJiillRoai  — 


Rex  Avenue    — 


Hermits  Lane    — 
Ridge  Road    — 


A  Key  Map  of   the 

Wissahickon 
Section  of 
Fairmount  Park 
Philadelphia 


48  THE     WISSAHICKON 

East  River  Drive,  until  he  passes  the  old  Ritten- 
house  dwelling,  and  so  on  to  Lincoln  Drive.  At  the 
Battle  Tablet  the  original  Wissahickon  Turnpike, 
following  the  course  of  the  stream,  veers  sharply  to 
the  westward  and,  becoming  narrower,  is  closed  to 
motor  traffic.  But  cars  may  be  parked  in  the  neigh- 
borhood, or  at  Valley  Green,  in  the  heart  of  the 
lovely  Upper  Wissahickon,  which  automobiles  may 
reach  only  by  way  of  Springfield  Avenue. 

Many  of  the  initiated  who  come  by  motor  from 
a  distance  arrange  to  have  carriages  or  saddle- 
horses  meet  them  at  Rittenhouse  Street,  which  has 
become  of  late  years  a  popular  rendezvous ;  for 
near  there  the  upper  drive  begins  and  the  main 
bridle  paths  strike  in.  The  old  horse-trail  along  the 
heights  above  the  right  bank  of  the  creek  (going 
upstream)  has  its  entrance  just  above  the  Ritten- 
house dwelling;  and  almost  directly  across  Lincoln 
Drive,  from  that  point  is  the  entrance  to  the  new 
trail  running  south  to  Ridge  Avenue.  The  maps.  A, 
B  and  C,  will  give  the  general  direction  and  extent 
of  these  bridle  paths.  The  reader  will  understand, 
of  course,  that  horsemen  are  free  to  use  the  main 
road ;  and  many,  indeed,  prefer  it.  No  other  park- 
way within  the  limits  of  any  city  in  the  world  af- 
fords such  rare  and  various  delights  to  the  eques- 
trian as  are  to  be  had  here. 

But,  after  all,  the  best  way  to  see  and  enjoy  a 
primitive  region  is  the  most  primitive  way.  No 
effort  is  made  in  the  several  simple  maps  in  these 
pages  to  indicate  the  exact  location  of  footpaths. 
All  roads  are  open  to  the  hiker,  and  to  him  alone 
do  all  the  beauties  of  the  region  disclose  themselves. 


THE     IVISSAHICKON 


49 


irance. 


Schayl 
kin_ 
RivKr 


50  THE     WISSAHICKON 

For  those  who  come  by  raih-oad  or  trolley  there  are 
several  advantageous  points  of  entrance  (see  page 
81),  but  since  Rittenhouse  Street  serves  best  as  a 
starting  point  for  excursions  afoot  in  either  direc- 
tion, we  will  ask  the  reader  to  start  with  us  now 
from  that  point,  for  a  sweep  'round  the  circuit.  It 
is  not  our  purpose  in  these  pages  to  fix  hard 
and  fast  limits  for  particular  hikes — these,  if 
desired  may  be  obtained  of  the  Philadelphia  Rapid 
Transit,  of  the  Riders'  and  Drivers'  Association,  or 
of  the  several  hiking  clubs — but  merely  to  indicate 
the  many  points  of  interest  up  and  down  the  valley, 
so  that  the  reader  may  plan  his  own  rambles. 

Entering  the  Park  at  the  junction  of  Rittenhouse 
Street  and  Wissahickon  Avenue  (see  map  A)  we  fol- 
low the  curve  of  the  road  to  a  point  a  few  yards 
short  of  Lincoln  Drive,  and  there  turn  to  the  left 
into  the  bridle  path.  Just  beyond  the  old  quarry, 
near  the  entrance,  the  trail  forks,  the  path  to  the 
right  leading  across  Lincoln  Drive  to  the  long 
horse-trail  through  the  Upper  Wissahickon.  We 
bear  to  the  left,  over  the  new  bridle  path  begun 
and  completed  within  the  past  two  years,  and  climb 
to  the  high  ground,  skirting  the  Park's  eastern 
boundary.  Far  below,  to  the  right,  is  the  entrance 
to  the  Upper  Wissahickon  Drive.  The  bridle  path 
climbs  higher  and  runs  for  a  considerable  distance 
parallel  with  the  lower  Drive.  Beautiful  vistas  open 
at  intervals,  as  the  path  dips  and  lifts  along  the 
ridge.  Just  below  Hermit  Lane  the  trail  sweeps  far 
to  the  left,  leaving  the  creek  behind,  and  plunges 
deep  into  primeval  woods.  It  makes  an  abrupt  turn 
to  the  right,  a  little  further  on,  and  crossing  Gypsy 


THE     WISSAHICKON 


51 


52  THE     IVISSAHICKON 

Lane  climbs  again  to  a  high  cliff  overlooking  the 
Drive,  and  from  there  w^inds  gracefully  down  to  the 
lower  level,  parallels  the  Drive  along  a  privet  hedge 
for  about  a  hundred  yards,  and  so  passes  into  Ridge 
Avenue.  The  distance  from  Rittenhouse  Street  to 
this  point  is  about  a  mile. 

The  building  on  Ridge  Avenue  just  below  the 
entrance  to  the  Wissahickon  Drive  was  long  a 
famous  roadhouse.  Nearby  is  the  site  of  Robeson's 
Mill,  and  at  the  mouth  of  the  creek,  on  the  bank  of 
the  Schuylkill,  is  the  former  home  of  the  Colony 
of  the  State  in  Schuylkill,  now  occupied  by  the 
Wissahickon  Canoe  Club.  Passing  along  Ridge 
Avenue  to  the  west  bank  of  the  creek  the  hiker 
strikes  into  a  broad  path  which  will  lead  him  back 
to  the  upper  reaches.  A  study  of  the  rock  forma- 
tions skirting  this  path  will  give  a  fair  idea  of  the 
difficulties  encountered  by  the  road  builders  who 
broke  through  that  granite  barrier  in  1826.  (It 
would  be  well  here  to  read  Professor  Ehrenfeld's 
graphic  article  on  page  63,  or,  for  fuller  information 
consult  Dr.  Angelo  Heilprin's  "Town  Geology.") 

A  few  hundred  feet  along  this  west  walk  a  steep 
flight  of  stone  steps  leads  up  to  Rochelle  Avenue, 
Roxborough.  A  little  further  on  a  fissure  in  the 
rock  wall  invites  a  scramble  to  the  heights  above. 
Beyond  the  path  enters  a  broad,  level  stretch  where 
there  is  a  boat  landing  and  boats  for  hire.  Directly 
across  the  creek  at  this  point  stands  Wissahickon 
Hall,  an  early  roadhouse  but  now  serving  as  a  bar- 
racks for  the  Park  Guard.  Further  on,  a  quarter 
of  a  mile  from  Ridge  Avenue,  there  is  another  boat 
landing   and   picnic   ground.     Here   stood    the    old 


THE     WISSAHICKON 


53 


se.e.  \Tn.a.p 


Townshi 


tShaWv 


54  THE     WISSAHICKON 

Log  Cabin,  and  directly  across  the  creek  is  the  site 
of  the  Maple  Springs  Hotel.  A  bridge  crossed  the 
creek  here,  but  it  was  removed  in  1919.  A  short 
distance  beyond  is  the  graceful  stone  bridge  by 
which  Hermit  Lane  spans  the  stream,  and  here  the 
pedestrian  must  take  to  the  east  side  or  climb  the 
trail  over  the  steep  western  bank. 

The  climb  upward  is  preferable,  for  the  reward 
is  great.  Directly  overhead  is  Lover's  Leap,  a 
broad  rock  jutting  out  over  the  wild  gorge  through 
which  flows  the  stream  two  hundred  feet  below. 
The  peak  gets  its  name  from  one  of  those  hack- 
neyed traditions  of  thwarted  love  with  which  such 
dizzy  heights  are  commonly  tagged.  It  deserves 
a  better  association.  There  is  evidence  that  Kel- 
pius  frequently  sat  there  in  meditation,  his  ruined 
cave  is  nearby,  on  Hermit  Lane,  and  it  is  probable 
that  his  grave  is  not  far  away.  The  Hermit's 
Spring,  said  to  have  been  dug  by  Kelpius  himself, 
lay  to  the  southwest ;  and  the  deep  gorge,  extending 
northward  along  the  stream  from  Lover's  Leap,  is 
still  known  as  The  Hermit's  Glen.  This  is  one  of 
the  most  striking  natural  features  in  all  the  Wissa- 
hickon  region.  The  hillsides  are  dotted  with  huge 
boulders,  and  from  one  of  these,  a  crag  jutting  out 
about  twenty  feet,  it  is  possible  to  look  down,  when 
the  trees  are  bare,  upon  the  creek's  sharp  elbow 
where  the  upper  Wissahickon  Drive  begins. 

At  this  point,  which  is  diagonally  across  the 
creek  from  the  Rittenhouse  Street  entrance,  the 
whole  character  of  the  valley  seems  to  change  and 
take  on  a  wilder  aspect.  From  the  Hermit's  Glen,  a 
broad  footpath  leads  gently  down  the  hill  slope,  and 


THE     IVISSAHICKON 


55 


56  THE     IVISSAHICKON 

passing  upstream,  beneath  towering  trees,  strikes 
into  the  main  Drive  where  the  Blue  Stone  Bridge — 
noble  successor  to  the  old  Red  Bridge — carries  the 
carriage  way  to  the  west  bank,  directly  above  the 
broad  pool  where  one  may  still  see  remnants  of  the 
dam  breast  of  an  ancient  grist  mill.  Here,  if  the 
scant  two  miles  covered  are  enough  for  one  day,  the 
bridge  to  the  right  may  be  crossed  and  the  path  fol- 
lowed back  to  Rittenhouse  Street.  If  one's  eyes 
are  sharp,  the  Indian  profile  may  be  seen  in  the  rock 
wall  a  few  hundred  feet  east  of  the  bridge.  One 
should  pause,  also,  to  read  the  Battle  Tablet  on  the 
great  rock  at  the  corner,  and,  passing  along  Paper 
Mill  Run  toward  Lincoln  Drive,  stop  to  pay  tribute 
to  the  birthplace  of  David  Rittenhouse. 

The   Upper  Wissahickon 

The  upper  valley,  from  the  Battle  Tablet  to  the 
County  Line  at  Chestnut  Hill,  comprises  three- 
fourths  of  the  total  area  of  the  Wissahickon  park- 
way, and  decidedly  more  than  that  proportion  of 
its  rarest  charm.  Here  Nature  is  at  home  and  the 
sights  and  sounds  of  the  bustling  modern  city  are 
completely  shut  out.  The  occasional  klop-klop  of 
horses'  hoofs  and  the  cawing  of  crows  in  the  tree- 
tops  are  the  loudest  notes  in  this  sylvan  symphony. 
Beauty  crowds  so  thick  upon  beauty  that  no  at- 
tempt shall  be  made  here  to  describe  them.  We  can 
touch  only  upon  the  chief  points  of  historical  or 
romantic  interest,  in  a  quick  trip  up  the  main  Drive 
to  the  County  Line  (about  six  miles)  and  back  by 
way  of  the  Bridle  Path  (see  maps  B,  C  and  D). 


THE     IVISSAHICKON 


57 


Taking  the  main  Drive,  then,  at  the  Blue  Stone 
Bridge,  we  pass,  on  the  left,  the  site  of  Lotus  Inn,  a 
small  center  of  large  delights  up  to  a  few  years 
ago  when  the  land  upon  which  it  stood  was  acquired 
by  the  Park  Commission  and  the  famous  little  road- 


Walnut  Lane  Bridge 

house  was  torn  down.  A  few  hundred  yards  fur- 
ther on,  the  road  bends  to  the  left  and  a  good  view 
may  be  had  of  Walnut  Lane  Bridge,  erected  in 
1907;  at  that  time,  and  for  some  years  after,  the 
longest  concrete  bridge  in  the  world.  It  is  still 
one  of  the  most  beautiful.  The  lines  of  its  single 
span,  about  125  feet  above  the  stream,  and  of  its 
five  smaller  arches,  are  exceedingly  graceful.     Just 


58  THE     WISSAHICKON 

beyond  this  high  bridge  the  creek  turns  sharply  to 
the  right,  affording  a  lovely  vista  from  the  Drive. 

Roxborough  Avenue,  striking  in  from  the  south- 
west, crosses  the  Drive  diagonally  into  Kitchen's 
Lane,  which  affords  exit  to  Germantown  by  way  of 
Carpenter  Street.  Over  the  bridge  at  this  point  the 
traveler  by  the  main  Drive  may  make  an  interesting 
side  excursion.  A  walk  of  about  150  yards  down- 
stream, along  the  footpath,  and  a  short  scramble  up 
hill  will  bring  him  to  Mom  Rinker's  Rock,  one  of  the 
highest  and  most  picturesque  crags  in  the  region. 
In  the  legends  connected  with  it  Mom  Rinker  is 
variously  described  as  a  witch  and  a  Revolutionary 
patriot.  "Toleration  Rock"  would  be  a  better  title 
for  this  splendid  spur,  for  here  in  1883,  the  late  John 
Welsh  erected  a  heroic  granite  statue  of  William 
Penn,  looking  southward  over  the  tree-tops  toward 
his  city.  On  the  stone  base  is  cut  simply  the  word 
Toleration.  The  pale  gray  figure,  seen  from  a  dis- 
tance in  certain  lights,  seems  poised  in  air.  It 
stands  close  to  the  edge  of  the  jutting  ledge,  from 
which  to  the  creek  winding  through  thick  pines 
there  is  a  sheer  drop  of  two  hundred  feet.  The 
view  here  is  grand  at  all  seasons ;  and  from  this 
peak,  when  the  trees  are  bare,  the  Monastery  may 
be  seen  on  its  hill  to  the  northward  beyond  Kit- 
chen's Lane.  From  the  lane  an  indistinct  path  leads 
up  over  the  hill  to  the  venerable  house,  built  about 
the  middle  of  the  Eighteenth  Century,  where,  for 
some  years,  Joseph  Gorgas  and  his  Seventh  Day 
Baptist  brethren  were  cloistered  from  the  world. 
Just  below  the  bridge  is  a  pool  called  the  Baptist- 


THE     WISSAHICKON  59 

ration,  or  baptistery,  in  which  proselytes  were  im- 
mersed, and  nearby  is  the  "haunted  glen." 

At  Kitchen's  Lane  the  main  Drive  enters  one  of 
the  loveliest  and  wildest  stretches  of  the  upper 
Wissahickon.  A  mile  further  on,  where  a  small 
stream  comes  in  from  the  westward  through  a 
charming  valley,  there  are  several  Caves,  natural 
and  artificial,  the  largest  a  reminder  of  the  useless 
and  foolish  labors  of  credulous  gold  miners  of  a  cen- 
tury or  more  ago.  Half  a  mile  beyond,  at  Shaw- 
mont  Avenue,  are  the  dismantled  piers  of  the  old 
Pipe  Bridge,  built  in  1870,  over  which  for  many 
years  was  carried  the  water  supply  from  the  Rox- 
borough  to  the  Mount  Airy  reservoir.  Here  begins 
a  stretch  of  placid  water.  On  the  west  bank  there  is 
a  canoe  landing,  and  in  a  little  glen,  hidden  by  the 
trees,  is  the  old  Livezey  House,  now  the  home  of  the 
Valley  Green  Canoe  Club.  Here  one  may  catch, 
high  up  the  wooded  eastern  slope,  an  occasional 
flash  of  riders  on  the  bridle  path.  The  hills  begin 
to  open,  the  road  broadens  and  Valley  Green  ap- 
pears— the  heart  of  the  upper  Wissahickon. 

The  inn  at  Valley  Green,  three  and  three-quarter 
miles  from  the  creek's  mouth,  and  a  mile  from 
Germantown  Avenue,  is  a  rendezvous  and  delightful 
refreshment  station  for  all.  For  many  years  past 
a  committee  of  public-spirited  women  have 
had  it  in  their  care.  Here  ends  navigation  for 
canoes,  and  here  in  winter  there  is  excellent  skating. 
Just  above  the  inn  Springfield  Avenue  comes  down 
from  St.  Martin's  over  an  arched  bridge  which  is 
a  thing  of  beauty.  Across  this  bridge,  from  Valley 
Green,   on   the   road   toward   St.   Martin's    Station, 


60 


THE     IVISSAHICKON 


there  is  a  beautiful  and  impressive  Wayside  Shrine, 
recently  erected,  as  "a  Memorial  to  the  boys  who 
gave  their  lives  in  the  Great  War."    By  this  bridge, 


.:>' 


Memorial  Shrine 


too — turning  directly  downstream  along  the  foot- 
path, on  the  west  bank — one  may  quickly  reach  the 
mouth  of  Cresheim  Creek,  not  visible  in  the  summer- 
time, from  the  main  Drive.     Just  above  the  point 


THE     WISSAHICKON  61 

where  the  Cresheiin  joins  the  Wissahickon  is  the 
Devil's  Pool,  rich  in  Colonial  and  Revolutionary 
tradition,  and  a  favorite  haunt  of  artists.  The  vol- 
ume of  water  here  is,  unfortunately,  not  so  great  as 
it  once  was,  and  some  of  the  olden  charm  is  lost. 

Half  a  mile  beyond  Valley  Green,  at  the  base  of 
a  steep  hill  of  massed  rocks,  covered  with  ferns  and 
wild  flowers  is  the  first  drinking  fountain  erected 
in  Philadelphia.  It  bears  date  of  1854,  and  was  the 
joint  gift  of  John  Cook,  by  whom  it  was  erected, 
and  Charles  Megargee,  owner  of  the  land,  whose 
famous  paper  mill,  in  a  nearby  meadow,  was  the 
last  industrial  establishment  left  standing  along 
the  Wissahickon.  On  a  slab  above  the  marble 
basin  is  cut  the  legend  "Pro  bono  publico,"  and 
below  "Esto  perpetua"  ("For  the  public  good ;  let 
it  remain  forever") — a  motto  and  devout  aspiration 
that  well  applies  to  the  whole  Wissahickon  region. 

At  the  eastern  end  of  Rex  Avenue  Bridge  a  mile 
above  Valley  Green,  an  arched  gateway  of  stone 
admits  to  the  rocky  path  leading  up  to  the  grandest 
of  the  Wissahickon's  stony  summits — Indian  Rock. 
The  spot  is  well  named,  and  the  noble  work  of  art 
which  now  crowns  it — the  crouching  figure  of  a 
gigantic  Lenape  warrior,  from  the  chisel  of  Massey 
Rhind  and  erected  in  1902  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Charles 
W.  Henry — is  a  fitting  memorial  to  the  native  red 
men  who  were  in  the  habit  of  meeting  in  council 
here  until  their  disappearance  from  the  valley  about 
1756.  Beneath  this  granite  lookout  the  hollow 
front  of  the  cliff  forms  a  natural  amphitheatre  in 
which  the  warriors  must  often  have  sat,  facing  a 
smaller   outcropping   of   flat    rock   that   may    have 


62  THE     IVISSAHICKON 

served  as  an  altar  or  a  rostrum  for  the  chief.  Below 
these  rocky  hills  towering  almost  perpendicularly 
the  stream  enters  a  deep  and  narrow  gorge.  The 
whole  neighborhood  is  inexpressibly  wild  and 
grand,  maintaining,  more  closely  than  any  other 
spot  along  the  Wissahickon,  the  aspect  and  atmos- 
phere of  200  years  ago.  For  many  years  this  air 
of  ancient  solitude  was  broken  by  the  bustling 
activity  of  one  of  the  most  popular  of  the  old  road- 
houses,  the  Indian  Rock  Hotel,  built  and  long  con- 
ducted by  Reuben  Sands.  The  Park  Commission 
removed  the  original  tavern,  and  Sands  erected  an- 
other on  Monastery  Avenue,  just  beyond  the  park 
limits.     But  that,  too,  has  passed. 

Returning  over  Rex  Avenue  Bridge  to  the  Drive, 
the  traveler  comes  presently  to  Thomas  Mill  Road 
where  the  creek  is  spanned  by  the  last  of  the  old 
covered  bridges  once  so  numerous  in  the  Wissa- 
hickon region.  In  1738  there  was  a  grist  mill  here, 
and  the  road  was  known  as  Barge's  Mill  Road  until 
1784  when  Thomas  bought  the  plant.  In  1859  it 
was  taken  over  by  Charles  Megargee  who  made  a 
paper  mill  of  it. 

From  this  point  north  the  country,  though  still 
rocky  and  uneven,  becomes  more  level.  In  old 
days  the  mills  were  thick  along  the  banks,  and  the 
numerous  changes  in  ownership  still  cause  some 
confusion  in  the  names  of  the  neighborhood's  by- 
ways. Daniel  Howell's  grist  mill,  of  1710,  passed 
to  Jonathan  Paul  in  1738,  to  John  and  James  Bell 
in  1801,  and  to  Issachar  Thorp  in  1833.  There  are 
ancient  inhabitants  today  who  still  speak  of  "Paul's 


THE     IVISSAHICKON  63 

Mill  Road"  and  (more  frequently)  "Bell's  Mill 
Road"  when  they  mean  Thorp's  Lane.  This  lane 
marked  the  northern  limits  of  the  Park  when  the 
Fairmount  Park  Commission  took  charge  a  half 
century  ago,  but  the  Drive  has  since  been  extended 
through  the  Andorra  Nurseries  to  the  County  Line. 
For  the  return  trip  down  the  Wissahickon  to 
Valley  Green  all  horsemen  will  be  obliged — and  the 
average  walker  will  prefer — to  keep  to  the  main 
Drive.  But  for  the  hardy  hiker  there  is  a  footpath, 
on  the  east  side  of  the  Wissahickon  that  will  de- 
lightfully repay  his  extra  efforts.  At  Valley  Green 
the  bridle  path  may  be  picked  up  again,  and  though 
there  are  many  footpaths  also  beginning  at  Spring- 
field Avenue,  riders  and  walkers  alike  will  find  that 
splendid  horse  trail  winding  along  the  crest  of  the 
eastern  ridge  an  avenue  of  rarest  beauty. 


Outlines   of  Wissahickon  Geology 

By  Frederick  Ehrenfeld,  Ph.d. 
In  charge  Geology  and  Mineralogy,  University  of  Pennsylvania 

Wissahickon  Creek  rises  to  the  north  of  the  city 
of  Philadelphia  in  the  general  region  of  Gwynedd- 
Lansdale-North  Wales,  from  where  it  flows  as  a 
small  stream  across  Whitemarsh  Valley  to  Chest- 
nut Hill.  It  is  at  this  portion  of  our  local  geography 
that  those  characteristics  which  have  made  the 
name  of  the  Wissahickon  famous  really  begin. 

Chestnut  Hill  comprises  a  region  of  some  400  feet 
elevation  above  sea  level  at  its  highest,  with  the 


64  THE     WISSAHICKON 

most  of  the  hills  reaching  about  300  feet;  while  at 
a  distance  down  of  from  100  to  200  feet  lower  flows 
the  Wissahickon  Creek,  making  the  series  of  gorges, 
deep,  narrow  valleys  and  other  natural  aspects 
which  have  made  this  region  justly  famous  as  one 
of  unusual  beauty  of  landscape. 

The  explanation  of  this  lies  in  the  pronounced 
geological  nature  of  the  rocks  of  the  region.  To 
the  north  of  Chestnut  Hill  the  native  rock  forma- 
tions are  as  a  rule  of  a  moderately  soft  and  easily 
eroded  character  and  the  processes  of  erosion  have 
reduced  the  country  to  a  general  flatness  devoid  of 
any  pronounced  changes  of  landscape  character. 
Whereas  on  the  south  the  rocks  of  the  Chestnut  Hill 
region  are  of  an  exceedingly  durable  nature  and 
have  resisted  the  wearing  away  of  time  to  such  an 
extent  as  to  leave  a  series  of  rounded  hills  which  are 
still  projected  above  most  of  the  other  country. 
These  Chestnut  Hill  rocks  belong  to  what  is  known 
among  geologists  as  "Appalachia" ;  that  is,  an  ex- 
tremely ancient  land  mass,  presumably  one  of  the 
foundation  parts  of  the  North  American  Continent, 
whose  remnants  are  still  to  be  seen  in  Pennsylvania, 
Maryland  and  adjacent  states.  This  mass  of  land 
now  comprises  a  series  of  very  old  and  very  much 
crystallized  rock  which  is  generally  believed  to  rep- 
resent, together  with  some  formations  about  New 
England  and  Canada,  the  oldest  recoverable  rocks 
of  North  America.  Its  former  area  extended  east 
beyond  the  present  coast. 

How  long  this  portion  of  Pennsylvania  has  been 
a  land  surface  exposed  to  the  outer  atmosphere  is  a 
question  which  is  impossible  of  answer;  certainly 


THE     IVISSAHICKON  65 

when  we  would  try  to  speak  in  the  terms  of  human 
life  it  is  not  possible  to  express  such  a  time  in 
years.  But  the  duration  of  time  since  the  Wissa- 
hickon  Creek  began  to  carve  its  channel  into  the 
schists  of  the  region  has  certainly  been  a  long  one 
even  in  the  geological  sense ;  it  represents  a  time 
long  enough  to  have  seen  the  reduction  of  the 
softer  limestone  rocks  of  the  White  Marsh- 
Chester  Valley  area  and  the  rounding  off  of  the 
hills  about  Fort  Washington  and  the  other  eleva- 
tions of  the  general  region,  from  a  former  and 
different  landscape.  In  the  life  of  our  Wissahickon 
have  been  many  changes  of  land  level. 

The  inherent  beauty  of  the  valley  of  the  Wissa- 
hickon is  due  not  alone  to  its  great  age  but  to  the 
nature  of  the  underlying  rock  which  has  preserved 
the  steep  sides  of  the  valley  and  presented  a  series 
of  cliffs,  walls  and  narrow  deep  gorges,  which  are 
a  large  part  of  the  charm  of  the  locality. 

We  owe  the  preservation  of  all  this  to  a  definite 
geological  fact,  the  absence  of  glaciation.  The 
rocks  of  New  York  City  and  vicinity  which  are  so 
like  our  own  in  many  ways  were  possibly  at  another 
geological  day  quite  like  our  Chestnut  Hill  in  land- 
scape, but  they  were  levelled  down  under  the  heavy 
drag  of  glaciation ;  their  valleys,  ravines  and  cliffs 
ground  away. 

The  valley  of  the  Wissahickon  escaped  all  this 
since  it  lay  too  far  to  the  south  to  come  within  the 
reach  of  the  glaciation.  It  presents  to  us  today  a 
unique  relic  of  geological  ages  otherwise  long  since 
passed  away. 


66  THE     IVISSAHICKON 

Trees  and  Wild   Flowers 

By  Alexander  MacElwee 
President  Philadelphia  Botanical  Club 

The  charm  of  the  Wissahickon  Hes  in  a  combination 
of  conditions,  any  one  of  which  might  be  excelled  in 
localities  not  far  away ;  but  after  all  is  said,  we  must 
admit,  that  without  the  arboreal  vegetation  the  lovely 
region  would  lack  its  prime  factor.  A  complete  study 
of  all  the  species  of  plants  would  require  more  space 
than  is  permitted  here.  A  running  comment  on  the 
chief  elements  of  the  plant  life  will  suffice. 

We  have  in  this  Hmited  area  a  fair  representation  of 
the  vegetation  of  the  Transition  Zone  of  the  Eastern 
United  States,  with  its  quick  changes  from  extreme 
heat  to  extreme  cold.  The  Hemlock  is  easily  the  most 
beautiful  tree  in  the  region.  This  graceful  evergreen 
tree  is  quite  at  home  in  the  valley  and  may  be  seen  at 
every  turn  of  the  drive.  On  steep,  almost  soilless, 
slopes,  hundreds  of  tiny  seedlings  may  be  counted, 
proving  that  it  is  surely  upon  its  "native  heath."  At 
Valley  Green  the  Hemlocks  assume  the  character  of 
almost  pure  forest,  forming  so  dense  a  canopy  as  to 
shut  off  all  hght  and  preventing  growth  of  any  plants 
on  the  floor  of  the  forest  below. 

At  the  end  of  Springfield  Avenue  Bridge,  may  be 
noted  fine  specimens  of  Norway  Spruce  and  Scotch 
Pine,  both  of  them  introduced  trees.  White  Pines  are 
frequent.  In  recent  years  thousands  of  seedling  pines 
have  been  planted  with  a  view  to  reforesting  naked 
slopes.  These  consist  principally  of  the  White  Pine, 
Red  Pine,  Jack  Pine  and  short  leaf  Yellow  Pine. 


THE     WISSAHICKON 


67 


Quite  a  variety  of  grasses,  sedges,  rushes  and  allied 
plants  interest  the  discerning  botanist.  In  tiie  woods 
the  Yellow  Adder 's-Tongue,  the  Grape  Hyacinth,  Solo- 
mon's Seal,  Indian  Cucumber  Root  and  allied  plants  of 


V  in  I  III  L  ■  .1  , 

.*.—  1    ,'    ;  '  'f       -I 


"■■i>*'i'.'j; 


fert»^  /»tfli^  *\- 


Old  Covered  Bridge 

the  Lily  Family,  may  be  found  in  the  season.  Native 
Orchids,  formerly  abundant  in  the  rich  woods,  like 
the  Indian,  have  long  since  disappeared. 

The  Crack  Willow,  a  native  of  Europe,  has  made 
itself  at  home  all  along  the  creek  and  its  tributaries. 
Especially  fine  trees  occur  in  the  meadow  between  the 
Lincoln  Drive  and  Rittenhouse  Street.  The  White  or 
Silver  Leaf  Poplar,  another  immigrant  from  Europe, 
forms  thickets  along  some  of  the  lanes  and  sites  of  old 


68  THE     IVISSAHICKON 

houses.  The  native  large-toothed  Aspen  is  common 
in  the  dryer  woods.  The  Black  Walnut  is  a  frequent 
tree.  Its  near  relative,  the  Butternut,  is  common,  par- 
ticularly along  the  banks  of  the  upper  stream;  its 
whitish  trunks  standing  out  conspicuously. 

There  are  several  varieties  of  Hickories  and  Birches, 
and  the  American  Beech  is  common,  in  some  places 
forming  pure  growths.  The  Chestnut  tree  is  appar- 
ently a  thing  of  the  past  and  we  never  expect  to  see 
again  the  glorious  bloom  of  this  magnificent  tree  in 
July.  There  are  several  species  of  Oak  growing  in 
the  Wissahickon  forest.  The  White  and  Red  Oak 
are  freely  distributed.  Pin  Oak  may  be  seen  in  the 
meadows  skirting  the  stream.  Higher  up  on  rocky 
slopes,  where  there  is  but  little  soil,  may  be  found  the 
Rock  Chestnut  Oak,  noted  for  its  deeply  furrowed  bark 
on  old  trees.  Unfortunately  this  tree  is  falling  a  prey 
to  the  Golden  Oak  scale,  another  importation  from 
Europe.  The  Bear  or  Shrub  Oak  may  be  found  near 
the  statue  of  "Toleration"  at  the  "Mom  Rinker's  Rock." 

The  American  Elm  is  a  beautiful  tree  common  in  the 
valleys.  A  magnificent  specimen  of  the  European  Elm, 
considerably  over  a  hundred  years  old,  grows  near  the 
site  of  the  Dewee's  Mill  at  Germantown  Avenue  and 
the  creek.  It  is  surrounded  by  a  goodly  array  of 
young  plants,  all  arising  from  the  parent  and  forming 
a  small  sized  forest  of  its  own.  Due  north  of  the 
Dewee's  Elm  is  a  fine  old  Silver  Maple,  standing  in 
what  was  formerly  the  Convent  Garden.  The  Negundo 
Maple  is  a  very  common  tree  all  along  the  stream,  and 
so  are  several  species  of  Mulberry  and  the  Hackberry. 

The  Tulip  Poplar  is  one  of  the  commonest  trees 
and  probably  there  are  more  grand  individuals  of 


THE     WISSAHICKON  69 

this  species  than  any  other.  The  straiglit  trunks  ris- 
ing clean  and  cohimnar — virtual  pillars  in  God's 
Temple — bear  aloft  a  mass  of  clean  shining  leaves, 
seldom  attacked  by  insects  or  fungus.  The  flowers 
are  beautiful  and  are  succeeded  by  cones  of  winged 
seeds  which,  let  loose  by  the  first  frosts  of  winter, 
are  driven  by  the  wind  to  great  distances  and  come 
tail-spinning  to  the  ground  everywhere. 

The  Laurel  Family  is  represented  by  two  species  of 
woody  plant — the  Spice  Bush  and  the  Sassafras — both 
of  them  characterised,  as  are  nearly  all  the  plants  of 
this  family,  by  spicy,  aromatic  taste  or  smell.  The 
Spice  Bush  is  very  common  on  bottom-lands  espe- 
cially, its  red  seeds  forming  an  acceptable  food  for 
the  birds.  The  Sassafras,  a  beautiful  small  flat- 
topped  tree,  alTects  the  dryer  areas  and  may  be  seen 
skirting  every  clump  of  woodlands  or  developing 
into  beautiful  rounded  specimens  in  the  fence  cor- 
ners or  open  fields. 

The  Plane  Tree,  Buttonball,  or  Buttonwood  (and 
occasionally  called  Sycamore),  is  a  native,  noted  for  its 
bark  peeling  off  at  the  end  of  summer.  There  are  fine 
specimens  of  this  beautiful  tree  at  the  edge  of  the  water 
in  a  grand  sweep  of  the  stream  just  above  Rex  Ave- 
nue; the  white  stems  stand  out  silhouetted  against 
the  darker  background  of  Hemlock  and  Oak  forest. 
Related  to  the  Plane  are  the  Wild  Hydrangea  and 
the  Witch  Hazel,  both  woodland  shrubs,  the  latter 
noted  for  its  streamers  of  golden  flowers  seen  nearly 
everywhere  in  our  area  gleaming  in  the  sunlight  of 
the  Indian  Summer. 

Volumes  might  be  written  of  the  Sumac,  the  Wild 
Cherry,  Hawthorn  and   other   small  trees,  but   space 


70 


THE     WISSAHICKON 


forbids.  The  Dogwood  family  is  represented  by  sev- 
eral species,  mostly  shrubs.  The  Dogwood  is  one  of 
the  most  beautiful  of  our  native  small  trees.    Flowers, 


-•^ 


■^^14'^ 


"Pro  Bono  Publico" 

leaves  and  fruit  have  each  their  peculiar  charm.  Wild 
Azaleas  lend  color  to  the  woods  in  late  spring,  while 
all  the  year  we  have  the  fresh  green  leaves  of  the 
Kalmia  or  Mountain  Laurel.     If  the  palm  be  given  to 


THE     WISSAHICKON  71 

the  Hemlock  as  the  most  beautiful  evergreen  tree,  it 
may  also  be  awarded  to  the  Kalmia  as  our  most  beauti- 
ful evergreen  shrub.  Whether  on  a  bleak  hillside  or 
wet  swamp,  in  sun  or  shade,  the  American  Laurel  is 
ever  beautiful;  fresh  green  always  in  winter  and 
summer,  and  when  in  full  bloom  at  the  latter  end  of 
May,  it  is  an  object  of  beauty  seldom  equaled  and  never 
excelled. 

The  American  or  White  Ash  is  a  common  tree  and 
thanks  to  its  winged  seed,  one  may  see,  along  with 
Tulip  Poplars,  thousands  of  lusty  seedling  youngsters 
on  every  hand. 

The  Catalpa  tree  is  making  itself  at  home  wherever 
an  opportunity  presents.  Along  with  it  and  resem- 
bling it  in  leaf  character  is  the  Paulownia,  a  Japanese 
tree.  This  beautiful  tree  bears,  early  in  spring, 
panicles  of  steel  blue  flowers  so  numerous  as  to  give 
color  to  the  woods  on  the  west  side  of  the  creek 
below  Hermit  Lane. 

Like  the  Indian  our  native  trees  seem  to  recede  be- 
fore the  march  of  the  White  Man.  They  resent  the 
opening  up  of  the  woods,  the  tramping  of  the  soil  and 
succumb  readily  to  attacks  of  insects  and  disease.  The 
Chestnut  has  gone;  others  are  quickly  following.  We 
know  not  when  some  fell  pest  will  attack  our  beautiful 
Tulip  Poplars,  Ash  and  other  trees.  It  seems  as  if 
fate  had  decreed  their  destruction  and  that  to  alien 
species,  their  places  had  been  assigned.  To  the  Ailan- 
thes,  Paulownia,  Catalpa  and  others  to  follow,  the  gaps 
in  our  woods  have  been  eiven. 


72  THE     IVISSAHICKON 

Mosses  Along  the  Wissahickon 

By  George  B.  Kaiser 

To  the  student  of  the  lower  plants  which  include 
the  ferns,  mosses,  lichens,  fungi  and  slime  moulds, 
the  valley  of  Wissahickon  Creek  is  a  veritable 
Mecca. 

At  all  seasons  an  abundance  of  lovely  ferns  grace 
the  driveway.  Even  in  the  dead  of  winter  the 
Christmas  fern  decks  the  banks  with  green  and  in 
several  places  the  "cheerful  community  of  the  poly- 
pody" is  to  be  seen  in  verdant  beauty  despite  the 
blasts.  The  club  moss  of  the  north,  too — really  not 
a  moss  but  a  species  of  Lycopodium — adds  an  ever- 
green adornment  to  the  scene. 

In  summer,  however,  the  ferns  are  at  their  best. 
The  Dicksonia,  the  hay-scented  or  boulder  fern,  that 
favorite  of  Thoreau,  is  perhaps  the  commonest  of 
all,  but  the  Lady  Fern,  as  well,  and  the  Spinulose 
and  Marginal  Shield  Ferns,  the  fragile  Bladder 
Fern,  the  Brake  or  Bracken — more  rarely  the  Beech 
Fern — and  other  species,  aid  in  making  the  region 
an  instructive  collecting  ground  for  the  pteridolo- 
gists. 

Then  the  mosses !  How  they  abound  upon  those 
banks  along  the  drive.  And  there  are  rarities 
among  them,  too.  The  Buxbaumia  grows  above 
Valley  Green  and  for  years  a  group  of  students  has 
carefully  noted  a  colony  at  the  base  of  a  certain 
buttonwood.  This  moss  is  a  curious  dwarf,  which 
a  famous  botanist  has  likened  to  a  "hump-backed 
elf"  while  a  more  prosaic  enthusiast  has  called  it  a 


THE     WISSAHICKON 


73 


"bug  on  a  stick."  The  fruits  look  like  glossy  brown 
buds  borne  half  inch  high  on  slender  stalks  and 
when  they  mature  these  capsules  explode,  forcibly 
discharging  the  spores.  Buxbaumia  has  a  near  rela- 
tive also  to  be  found  along  the  Wissahickon.  It  is 
called  Webera  sessilis  and  the  fertile  plants  look 
very  much  like  grains  of  wheat  sparsely  scattered 
on  the  bank. 


The  Monastery 

On  the  rocks  in  one  place  grows  Rhabdoweisia,  a 
moss  otherwise  usually  found  in  Alpine  regions, 
and  several  of  those  mosses  whose  tiny  capsules 
present  strangely  twisted  teeth  about  their  mouth 
may  be  discovered  if  we  search  diligently. 

Some  of  us  remember  how  faithfully  we  always 
revisited  in  April  the  old  stone  bridge  at  Valley 
Green,  where  grew  a  Grimmia  with  fruits  showing 
outspread  red  teeth  just  like  very  tiny  starfish  when 
they   opened   at  that   season.     How   we  regretted 


74  THE     WISSAHICKON 

when  that  old  stone  wall  of  the  bridge  was  replaced 
by  a  new  one.  The  uninitiated  do  not  realize  the 
beauty  and  interest  that  these  mosses  offer  to  the 
student.  The  delicate  feathery  forms,  the  cushions, 
the  mats  of  so  many  kinds,  their  aesthetic  value  in 
the  landscape,  their  wonderful  arrangement  of  cells 
under  the  microscope,  their  ever  varying  fruits  so 
infinitely  well  adapted  in  structure  for  the  sowing  of 
the  spores — ^you  must  look  at  them  closely  to  see  all 
these  beauties,  but  even  the  general  effect  is  grati- 
fying and  it  is  difficult  to  imagine  how  bare  those 
banks  would  appear  without  their  mossy  covering. 
Read  Ruskin !  In  his  "Modern  Painters"  there  is 
a  bit  of  poetic  prose  about  the  mosses. 

We  must  not  forget  the  lichens.  These  grey- 
green  plants,  composed  of  an  alga  and  a  fungus  liv- 
ing together,  also  occur  along  the  Wissahickon 
Creek,  and  their  life  histories  present  strange  facts 
of  symbiosis  or  of  parasitism,  which  have  been  the 
foundation  for  various  theories  during  the  past  half 
century  or  more.  The  questions  are  not  settled  yet, 
so  if  you  want  to  participate  in  weighty  argument 
just  study  the  lichens  and  qualify  to  give  your  own 
opinion  of  their  true  nature. 

If  you  have  sought  the  Wissahickon  in  late  sum- 
mer, surely  you  have  been  impressed  with  the  many 
kinds  of  mushrooms  and  toadstools  to  be  found 
there.  Their  colors  are  many,  their  forms  are  many, 
too,  and  you  have  vaguely  thought  of  those  good 
to  eat  as  mushrooms,  and  of  all  the  others  as  toad- 
stools, but  if  you  had  entered  the  true  realm  of 
mycology  you  would  have  found  that  all  these 
fungi  are  strangely  fascinating.    Some  are  so  deadly 


THE     WISSAHICKON  75 

that  for  their  poison  there  is  no  known  antidote, 
others  offer  a  grateful  food  for  man  and  without 
pretending  at  all  to  be  a  great  mycophagist — an 
eater  of  fungi — the  writer  has  enjoyed  at  least 
twenty  kinds  collected  in  the  Wissahickon  region. 

More  lowly  than  the  true  fungi,  but  like  them 
living  on  decaying  organic  remains,  are  the  Slime 
Moulds — the  Myxomycetcs,  as  they  are  scientifically 
called.  The  naked  eye  does  not  see  the  most  in- 
teresting part  of  their  life  history,  which  is  spent 
as  naked  protoplasm  creeping  wonderfully  through 
the  interstices  of  decaying  logs  and  leaves.  During 
this  time  they  seem  to  be  animal  and  by  some  are 
still  called  mycetozoa,  or  slime  animals,  but  at  a 
certain  season  the  protoplasmic  substance  creeps 
out  from  the  log  on  leaves  and  fructifies.  Many  tiny 
spore-cases  appear  which  have  delicate  structure 
and  bear  many,  often  bright,  colors.  We  have  sev- 
eral good  students  of  the  Slime  Moulds  who  search 
the  vicinity  of  the  drive  each  year  for  new  and  in- 
teresting forms  of  these  plants.  Many  species  are 
to  be  found  all  through  the  Valley  and,  if  you  have 
doubts,  just  take  a  walk  out  there  some  fine  day  in 
August  with  a  "myxomycetologist"  and  he  will 
show  you  the  infinitely  small  in  beauty  of  which 
you  may  have  never  dreamed. 

So  rich  is  this  Valley  of  the  Upper  Wissahickon 
in  all  these  forms  of  lower  plant  life  that  here  is 
presented,  for  scientific  research  and  constant  en- 
lightening study,  a  field  which  can  never  be  re- 
placed, a  field  so  valuable  to  the  student  that  to  our 
knowledge  it  has  not  its  like  near  any  great  city 
of  the  world. 


76  THE     WISSAHICKON 

Birds  of  the  Wissahickon 

By  Wm.  Henry  Trotter 

The  charm  of  the  beautiful  Wissahickon  is  much 
enhanced  by  the  song  and  color  of  many  birds.  In 
this  little  bit  of  native  wilderness,  bordering  a  great 
city,  many  rare  species  find  a  sanctuary,  make  a 
home,  and  if  undisturbed  will  return  every  spring 
to  gladden  the  hearts  of  the  steadily  increasing  fel- 
lowship of  those  who  seek  peace  and  recreation  in 
the  study  of  nature's  miracles. 

Although  there  is  no  season  of  the  year  when 
some  birds  may  not  be  found  there,  spring  and  early 
summer  mark  the  flood  tide  of  number  and  variety. 
As  nesting  time  approaches  and  courtship  is  in  full 
sway,  the  happy  suitor  dons  his  finest  feathers  and 
sings  his  little  heart  out  in  ecstasy.  During  May, 
in  the  height  of  the  migration  period,  the  woods, 
on  certain  days,  seem  full  of  birds,  resting  on  their 
flight  farther  north.  Most  of  these  birds  are  Warb- 
lers, small,  active,  of  infinite  variety  and  generally 
of  brilliant  plumage.  The  Wissahickon  offers  an 
ideal  refuge  and  rare  members  of  this  large  sylvan 
family  may  often  be  seen  by  the  fortunate.  By 
June  most  of  the  travelers  have  departed  and  one 
can  now  get  in  close  touch  with  the  home  life  of 
feathered  favorites  who  year  after  year  unerringly 
return  to  their  birthplace. 

In  some  break  in  the  woods  where  the  under- 
growth is  thick,  a  deliberate  mellow  whistle  at- 
tracts our  attention  and  our  eyes  will  soon  locate 
on  a  commanding  bough  a  bright  spot  of  red,  a 
male  Cardinal  in  all  his  glory.     These  brilliantly 


THE     WISSAHICKON 


77 


colored  finches,  a  gift  from  the  South,  are  now 
common  all  through  the  Wissahickon  Valley.  A 
more  spectacular  vocal  performer,  but  more  soberly 
colored,  is  the  Brown  Thrasher,  called  by  Audubon 
the  Ferruginous  Mockingbird  and  fairly  equalling 


■/rf-r'-'-fi 


Rex  Avenue  Bridge 

that  marvelous  vocalist.  From  a  lofty  perch  he 
pours  forth  a  medley  of  song,  hardly  stopping  to 
take  breath. 

Before  moving  on  we  must  find  the  Indigo-bird,  a 
small  finch  of  a  much  darker  blue  than  the  Bluebird 
and  very  common  in  all  the  open  places.  His  song, 
however,  is  not  equal  to  his  looks.  Two  warblers, 
the  Maryland  Yellow-throat,  and  the  Blue-winged 
Warbler,  should  also  be  here.  The  male  Yellow- 
throat  wears  a  jet  black  mask  and  is  thus  easily 


78  THE     WISSAHICKON 

identified.  Both  nest  on  the  ground.  If  a  thick 
patch  of  bramble  is  near  at  hand  we  should  find  the 
Yellow-breasted  Chat,  the  largest  member  of  the 
Warbler  family.  Although  his  appearance  is  strik- 
ing, with  his  bright  yellow  breast,  his  main  claim 
to  fame  is  the  peculiarity  of  his  song,  which  is  a 
series  of  trills  and  calls  of  infinite  range  and  variety. 
He  has  been  described  as  a  vocal  gymnast.  When 
the  moon  is  full  he  often  sings  all  night  long. 

It  is  probable  that  a  loud  ringing  call  has  by  this 
time  reached  our  ears,  but  it  will  not  be  easy  to 
find  the  owner.  It  sounds  like  "whee-udel,  whee- 
udel,  whee-udel,"  and  comes  from  the  Carolina 
Wren,  a  larger  cousin  of  the  well-known  House 
Wren ;  it  is  also  a  gift  from  the  South,  where  it  is 
very  common.  The  power  of  the  song  compared 
to  his  size  puts  all  the  other  birds  to  the  blush. 
This  Wren  and  the  Cardinal  are  with  us  all  the 
year  'round.  As  we  pass  from  the  sunlight  to  the 
shade  of  the  tall  hemlocks,  other  bird  music  catches 
our  attention ;  the  arresting  song  of  the  Ovenbird, 
a  small,  ground-walking  warbler,  marked  like  a 
miniature  Thrush.  The  woods  resound  with  his 
shrill  "Teacher,  Teacher,  Teacher,"  as  John  Bur- 
roughs has  so  well  described  it,  increasing  in  speed 
and  height  of  scale  as  he  finishes  his  measure.  The 
Ovenbird  is  named  from  the  appearance  of  his  nest, 
which  is  on  the  ground  and  roofed  over  like  an 
oven. 

Three  other  warblers  spend  the  summer  here,  the 
Kentucky  Warbler,  the  Worm-eating  Warbler,  and 
the  Louisiana  Water  Thrush.  The  Water  Thrush 
is  a  lover  of  mountain  streams  where  trout  lurk  in 


THE     WISSAHICKON  79 

the  shadows  and  is  not  found  here,  except  in  the 
Wissahickon  and  along  the  small  creeks  that  tumble 
down  the  wooded  slopes.  His  wild  song,  when 
first  heard  on  his  arrival  in  early  spring,  never  fails 
to  thrill  the  bird  lover. 

A  walk  in  these  woods  would  be  incomplete  un- 
less it  was  our  good  fortune  to  see  the  Scarlet  Tan- 
ager,  the  most  brilliant  gem  of  our  feathered  visitors 
and  a  songster  of  no  mean  merit ;  his  throaty  call  of 
"Chip-Churr"  lets  us  know  when  he  is  about.  We 
must  not  forget  the  Red-eyed  Vireo,  singing  con- 
tinuously in  a  low,  pleasing  monotone.  His  pensile 
nest  is  one  of  the  finest  examples  of  bird  architec- 
ture. He  is  a  sober-colored  little  bird,  of  a  trusting 
nature,  and  will  allow  a  close  approach  while  in- 
dustriously hunting  through  the  leafy  boughs  for 
his  favorite  diet  of  measuring  worms  and  small 
caterpillars.  His  cousin,  the  Yellow-throated  Virco, 
is  not  uncommon,  but  lives  mainly  in  the  tree  tops. 
As  we  approach  the  stream,  we  will  probably  be 
startled  by  a  sound  like  a  watchman's  rattle,  as  a 
Kingfisher  flies  by.  Each  pair  have  always  their 
recognized  fishing  section  and  favorite  perches, 
where  they  keep  a  sharp  lookout  for  any  careless 
fish  that  come  too  close  to  the  surface.  Here  we 
will  see  the  Spotted  Sandpiper  or  Tilt-up,  the  name 
he  gets  from  the  teetering  character  of  his  walk. 

The  Swallow  that  skims  the  surface  of  the  water 
is  called  the  Rough  Wing  and  nests  between  the 
stones  in  the  old  bridges.  Another  bird  nests  under 
the  old  bridges  or  in  a  cave  if  one  is  handy — the 
Phoebe  Flycatcher.  His  song  is  no  more  than  an 
effort  to  call  his  own  name,  but  is  one  of  the  Wissa- 


80  THE     WISSAHICKON 

hickon's  most  familiar  sounds.  Two  other  Fly- 
catchers help  the  Phoebe  to  keep  down  the  insect 
hosts,  the  Acadian  Flycatcher  and  the  Wood  Pewee  ; 
and  sometimes  the  Crested  Flycatcher  pays  a  visit 
to  the  more  open  places.  The  Wood  Pewee  also 
calls  his  own  name  in  a  clear,  plaintive  whistle. 

Of  the  Woodpecker  family,  the  Flicker  and 
Downy  Woodpecker  are  both  common  and  the 
Hairy  Woodpecker  is  sometimes  seen.  The  Nut- 
hatch family  is  represented  by  the  White-breasted, 
whose  call  of  "Yank,  Yank"  is  often  heard.  He  is 
a  short,  stumpy  little  bird  and  runs  up  and  down 
the  tree  trunks  hunting  the  bark  for  grubs.  His 
cousin,  the  Tufted  Titmouse,  a  straggler  from  the 
South,  sometimes  pays  a  visit;  his  song  is  loud 
and  monotonous  "peto,  peto,  peto,  peto,"  or  rarely 
"dear,  dear  me,"  which  is  more  pleasing.  Bluejays 
find  a  retreat  here,  but  notwithstanding  their  size 
and  bright  blue  plumage,  are  more  often  heard  than 
seen. 

Of  the  larger  birds.  Crows  are  plentiful,  nest  in 
the  tall  hemlocks  and  attack  with  raucous  cry  any 
Owl  or  large  Hawk  that  ventures  into  their  pre- 
serves. The  swift  Cooper's  Hawk,  however,  does 
not  fear  them  and  nests  in  a  suitable  crotch  in  the 
high  oaks.  The  Sparrow  Hawk  also  is  at  home  on 
the  edge  of  the  woodland  and  the  little  Screech 
Owl  hides  by  day  in  the  hollow  trees.  As  evening 
falls  and  we  leave  this  woodland  paradise,  the  full 
splendor  of  America's  finest  songster,  the  Wood 
Thrush,  filters  through  the  leafy  aisles  and  is  a 
fitting  close  to  a  day  with  nature  at  her  best  "far 
from  the  madding  crowd." 


THE     WISSAHICKON  81 

Railroad  and  Trolley   Routes 

Pennsylvania  Railroad — Chellen  Avenue  Sta- 
tion (Gerniantown)  is  five  blocks  from  Rittenhouse 
Street  entrance ;  Tulpehocken  Station  is  four  blocks 
from  Walnut  Lane  bridge ;  Carpenter  Station  and 
Allen's  Lane  Station  each  about  3  miles,  and  St. 
Martin's  Station,  1  mile  from  creek  at  Valley  Green ; 
Chestnut  Hill  Station  is  \%  miles  from  upper 
entrance  at  County  Line.  (Trolley  Route  23  passes 
station). 

Reading  Railroad — Wissahickon  Station  (Rox- 
borough)  is  four  blocks  from  Ridge  Avenue  en- 
trance. 

Trolley  Lines — Route  61  reaches  the  Ridge  Ave- 
nue entrance;  Route  52,  the  foot  of  Rittenhouse 
Street;  Route  53  parallels  the  Creek  from  Ritten- 
house Street  to  Carpenter  Street  at  distances  vary- 
ing from  one-quarter  to  one-half  mile  away ;  and 
Route  23  parallels  the  Creek  north  from  Carpenter 
Street  to  the  County  Line  which  it  crosses  within 
two  blocks  of  the  upper  entrance.  It  crosses  Allen's 
Lane,  Springfield  Avenue,  Hartwell  Avenue  and 
Rex  Avenue  about  lj4  miles  from  the  Creek;  at 
Thomas  Mill  Road  (Chestnut  Avenue)  and  at 
Bell's  Mill  Road  (Thorp's  Lane)  the  distance  is  but 
three-quarters  of  a  mile.  Valley  Green  can  be 
reached  by  two  walks  from  Allen's  Lane,  one  by  way 
of  the  continuation  of  Cresheim  Road,  the  other  by 
way  of  Livezey  Lane  at  the  west  end  of  Allen's  Lane, 


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